Watch Sharpe with me on Patreon: www.patreon.com/sogal_yt?fan_landing=true. Enjoyed this little look at some British military history, learning about the kit of the 95th Rifles during the time of Napoleon. Like and subscribe if you enjoyed this video 👍🏻 Follow me on social media, and join my Discord: 🐕 Instagram: instagram.com/sogal.yt/ 🏀 Twitter: twitter.com/SoGal_YT ⚽️ Facebook Page: facebook.com/SoGal-104043461744742 🏖 Facebook Group: facebook.com/groups/238616921241608 💥 Discord: discord.gg/amWWc6jcC2
A smoothbore musket has a barrel that is smooth on the inside. These when fired were inaccurate even at short ranges but was the only technology available at the start of the napoleonic wars. The game changer came when the British invented the rifle and with the Baker rifle, brought it into battles in larger numbers. The inside of a rifle barrel has lans and grooves in a twist we know as rifling which gives the rifle it's name. When fired, the rifling on the inside of the rifle barrel gives the round being fired a twist and as it exits the barrel the round will spin in the air as it travels towards the target. This twist and spin they found gave a much better accuracy at a much longer range of shot. This was a real help to the heavily outnumbered British soldiers during the napoleonic wars as British riflemen could open fire upon the enemy French armed with inferior smoothbore muskets at a range and accuracy where the French musketmen could not return fire at the British riflemen. Therefore the difference in number of troops between the British and French armies was somewhat negated. It was like bringing a brand new superweapon that only the British had in numbers to the battlefield. The rifle was probably the single most important invention that helped towards the British and its allies winning the napoleonic wars.
Smooth bore rifles have no rifling (they were normally called muskets), where the Baker rifle was rifled. Rifling is putting a spiral groove down the inside of the barrel to make the ball spin in the air. Doing this increases both accuracy and distance, the narrow the twist rate the more spin you get on the projectile. For instance a twist rate of 1 full revolution in 10 inches would be a twist rate of 1:10. For a look at all weapons and explanation and demonstrations of their uses I recommend watching Sean Bean on Waterloo which is in 2 parts on RUclips. They go through a range of weapons as well as explaining what happened at Waterloo. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rifling ruclips.net/video/AyV_8nlg-wY/видео.html ruclips.net/video/_9h-HFGC5OY/видео.html
You should research the Royal American Regiment. They started on Christmas Day 1755 as the 62nd Regiment of ffoot. This is when the Rifles changed their unifoms from red to green to fight in the forests of Noth America. They also chaned their thod of communications fron useing a drum to the use of a Bugle.. Today they are known as the 2nd Battalion The Rifles. there are videos on RUclips of them Changeing Guard at Windsor that you might lfind interesting.
@@philosuileabhain861 Did you not do maths at school? Google the difference between a spiral and a helix. If online dictionaries are your only source of knowledge, maybe it's best to keep quiet.
In the Sharpe series, there is a rifleman in the unit called Harris. He is based on a real person who kept a diary of his time in the Peninsula campaign. There is a book called 'The Recollections of Rifleman Harris' which tells his story. I don't know if it is still in print, but it is not a long book but would give you a good insight into what went down.
I had no idea that character was based on the real Harris. That is an excellent book, though I would not recommend it to someone who did not already know the ebbs and flows of the peninsular war. The narrative assumes knowledge in the reader that exists only among historians today, though it would be well enough remembered when it was written.
@@andrewcharles459 I kind of agree, but SoGal has covered the Peninsula campaign in previous videos, and Harris' book is not that hard to follow. I first read it when I was baby wargamer of 14... Omg, 1972! .... ahem, and I could follow it.
I've read the book and it really is a gritty tale of hardship and sacrifice. I served for 16 years yet I doubt I would have been capable of the feats of this era. The hardships that generation faced. If my memory serves me right Harris fought throughout the Pensinsular war and miraculously survived. He also fought in Denmark and Hollands. Until I read your comment I made no connection with this character in the series and the Rifleman Harris recollections. Fascinating - thanks.
@@scaleyback217 I'd like to know the nature of the army lash that a person can survive 700 lashes. I thought that was an exaggeration, but I found newspapers of the period that verified punishments of that severity. In the navy 300 lashes - less than half - would be a death sentence. There had to be something different about it, but I've never discovered what.
Tanks today can also have rifled or smoothbore. The British Challenge2 is the only main battle tank today that is rifled. But the next Challenger will be Smoothbore. The advantage of rifled is more accurate at a further distance, and the tank is able to store more rounds. Sadly, the disadvantages outweigh the advantages. The problem with rifled is it is more expensive to replace a gun, and militaries are very cost-conscious today. But the bigger issue is, you can't fire missiles out of it as good as from a smoothbore. Missile rounds are preferred against modern Tank armor.
@@MarkVrem Correct, although it is worth noting that on smoothbore guns of the size fitted to tanks, the same effect of a spinning projectile can be achieved with pop-out fins on the projectile, giving the best of both worlds. Another benefit of smoothbores is that it is easier to design and make a range of ammunition types for them.
@@phillee2814 Yah you're right. Gonna need to correct my comment above. The reason smoothbore is more popular tanks today is because it allows tanks to mire missiles not just projectiles. Putting spin on a missile would actually hurt its accuracy. These missiles are preferred, now because they are better at penetrating the type of armor modern tanks use.
I spent 6 years in the Royal Green Jackets, a regiment with a direct link from the 95th Rifles. We had a number of small differences to other regiments in the British army, such as the command 'fix swords' instead of fix bayonets. And troops being called 'Rifleman' instead of private. 40 years ago now, and I still remember every day of my service, I shall be watching your channel with great interest. Keep up the good work....... Regards.
I worked with a RGJ ? Who told me about an officer not of the reg on a parade in Gibraltar who didn't know about your marching speed being different to his apparently it was very Benny hill and had everyone in the audience stitches.
@@dave_h_8742 Hi Dave, thanks for your reply....... Yes; that was a common event, not only for us, but with other Lt infantry regiments as well. Happy days......
I've been a fan of the Sharpe series since it first aired on PBS Buffalo. Have read most of the books, one is dedicated to Sean Bean and the historic notes are full of information. The note from Sharpe's Trafalgar starts: "Sharpe had no business being at Trafalgar, then neither did Admiral Villeneuve."
"Flintlock": "Lock" here stands for any kind of complicated mechanical thingy. In this case, it is the mechanism that is used to ignite the charge of the gun. "Flint" is just that... a flint. A type of stone that, when struck against steel, creates sparks. So it is a mechanism that uses flint-and-steel, spring driven, to fire the gun. Other types of "locks" are, for example, "matchlocks", where a burning match is mechanically brought to the powered, or "wheellocks" where the ignition mechanism consists of a spring-driven turning steel wheel striking sparks on a fixed piece of pyrite.
A Baker Rifle has a rifled barrel, a Brown Bess musket is smooth bore i have held both weapons they weigh similar to the SA80 used by The British Military.
@@salsaniggas8544 the good thing about the smoothbore is it was much cheaper and you could load it faster than a rifle. Rifle muskets didn't get more practical until after the Crimean War.
"O'er the hills and o'er the main, through Flanders, Portugal and Spain, King George commands and we obey, over the hills and far away" You'll enjoy the Sharpe series, it's very good, brilliantly acted and it really does capture how life was like for British soldiers back then. You certainly get a sense as to why Wellington described his men as 'Scum of the earth' I just hope you can understand Sean Bean's Yorkshire accent and he does tend to say the word 'BASTARD' quite a lot. 😉 PS. If you haven't already, watch the 1970 film 'Waterloo' starring Rod Steiger as Napoleon and Christopher Plummer as Wellington. It's truly excellent and is one of the most historically accurate movies ever made.
An earlier version had Queen Anne being obeyed and was obviously written with an Irish unit in mind. ruclips.net/video/J7inAs35NU4/видео.html Film does not match the era concernied in the song but we'll not quibble about the deliberate mistake. IMHO this version of greater historical interest than the King George version even though I prefer the Tam's rendition.
Wellington did describe his men as scum of the earth who enlist for drink. But in the full quote he then went on to say: “It is only wonderful that we should be able to make so much out of them afterwards”. “Red Coat” by Richard Holmes is also an excellent book that demolishes many of the myths about the British Army of this era.
A couple of things not addressed either in this video or the Napoleonic Wars. One is "volley fire." The soldiers stood in 2 or 3 lines (ranks) and each rank fired in turn. They used single-shot muzzle-loading guns, which take time to reload. FIring by rank gave them time to reload before it was their rank's turn again. British infantry were trained to reload quickly and did it just about faster than any other army. This "quick fire" practice continued long after Napoleonic times, so much so, that when the Germans came up against the British Expeditionary Force (the first British troops in France) early in WW1, the Germans thought they were facing machine guns, not rifles. Second, bayonets were not just used defensively - they were used when charging an enemy to hopefully send them running away. You can see soldiers using bayonets fixed to rifles in documentaries and photos of both WW1 and WWII.
I learned from Sharpe the reload system , and the drill installed to make it effective, The main thing about Sharpe was the interplay with incompetent (bought commission) officers.
A good film to see this in action, albeit with Martini Henri breech loading rifles, is Zulu, staring a young Michael Cain. ruclips.net/video/nQrE8vOM0ss/видео.html
@@highpath4776 Good point , and is another aspect that wasn't really made clear in the Napoleonic war videos. With very few exceptions, in the British Army (not sure about other countries) officers were not promoted on ability or seniority, but purchased their new rank, so wealthy people could quickly become senior officers. This practice only ended in 1871.
I've seen the Sharpe series on TV here in the UK, so I know you're in for a treat. Hope to see RUclips versions of your reactions to it. Found this video interesting, but you're right, you do pick up most of this from watching the series. As a student more of WW2 history, I did connect to the Rifle Brigade, which formed the 'Motor Battalions' in Armoured Divisions. The Motor Battalion was part of the Armoured (i.e. tank) Brigade and would ride in armoured half-track vehicles, while the infantry battalions in the Infantry Brigade were carried in trucks. In today's smaller British Army, a lot of famous infantry regiments are amalgamated into The Rifles Regiment. Currently, 5th Battalion of The Rifles Regiment carry on the Armoured Infantry role. Really sad how all these famous Regiments like the 95th Rifles get lost in all the history, but at least we have Sharpe to the rescue! Keep up the good work.
The focus of Sharpe: The 95th Rifles and like troops were specialists. They had their role on a battlefield, but they weren't line-infantry... the "main guys". These were meant to fight as a tight formation. The Rifles were skirmishers, meant to fight independently, in pairs or small groups. As such, they were used as scouts or rearguards. And for a movie, it makes sense to focus on them. You have a group of individuals, going on their own adventures, instead of a huge mass of soldiers marching or fighting in a large group.
@@highpath4776 Yes but no. In the stories/movies, it of course makes sense to portray the protagonists as some sort of "special agents" or commandos, running from one hotspot to the next. And it also makes sense to use troops trained to fight independently from centralized command for such a task. In reality, such tasks - infiltration, sabotage, communication, spying - were given to all sorts of people, often young officers or mounted troops.
This was one reason the Baker was selected. The bullet only gripped the rifling when wrapped in a leather patch, which made loading more time consuming, but could be fired without. This meant rapid but inaccurate fire, which was good enough for closer range. This way rifle battalions could also perform the same function as line regiments, if so needed.
@@highpath4776 They were the elite soldiers of the time, certainly - and the ethos lasted. The current Chief of the Defence Staff, Nick Carter, began his service as a Green Jacket. 'Air' in SAS doesn't mean they always fly - it was originally a fiction, to fool the enemy, in N.Africa.
All British infantry regiments had skirmishers - i.e. their light company. The 95th were specialised skirmishers, which made them unusual in the British Army of the time (the others being the 60th “Royal American” Rifles. Skirmishers did have a role in set piece battles, which was to pick off enemy skirmishers, officers and NCOs and try to break up enemy formations before the main forces engaged. That’s why the rifle was so useful. I’m intruiged why anyone would go out of their way to make a video without having done the slightest bit of research beforehand. It’s lazy. It’s sloppy. It’s incompetent. And it’s clickbait.
If your talking about the 95th they used a short sword style. Hence the order fix swords rather than fix bayonets. This command lasted at least till the sixties. The regimental system was formalised after 1881 with regiments losing there number designation and getting names and regions to recruit from. For example the experimental rifle corps becomes the 95th regiment becomes the Rifle Brigade. in 1958 it forms part of ‘Green Jackets Brigade’ ,it’s amalgamated in 1966 with the other parts of the brigade to form ‘The Royal Green Jackets’. Not letting things lie the light infantry regiments and the green jackets were amalgamated into the Rifles in 2007.
@@Thetasigmaalpha The current Rifles still 'Fix swords!' Note a Battalion, Regiment, Brigade, Division (the 95th were part of the elite Light Division) and Corps are all different sizes of formation.
@@Thetasigmaalpha The 95th Rifles dropped their number after Waterloo to become The Rifle Brigade. 95 went to The Sherwood Foresters. They both used the march "I'm 95"
The reason a rifle is called a rifle is because it has grooves on the inside of the barrel. These grooves (rifling) are helicoidal so as the ball moves down the bore it places an angular spin on it. This angular velocity counteracts the effect of gravity to a good degree and increases both the range of the ball and suppresses its movement curve, thus making it more accurate. Smooth bore doesn’t achieve this. All guns now have rifling.
@@Thetasigmaalpha You are correct about smooth bore on main battle tanks though I was thinking about small arms so I ought to have been more specific. As for shot guns, they fire shot from a cartridge and are useful only at short range due to the distribution of shot at long range. Spin and rifling in a shot gun is not useful. So I should have perhaps said ‘most small arms’ are rifled. 😌
The spin imparted to the bullet by rilfing does not have any effect on gravity whatsoever. Rifling is not an "anti-gravity" device. The spin of the bullet helps to even out any imperfections in the bullet (lead ball) which might otherwise cause it to wander in flight thus making it more accurate. In modern bullets, which are long, narrow and pointed instead of being simple lead balls, the spin prevents them tumbling in flight because it creates a gyroscope like effect.
@@markkettlewell7441 No worries, we all mis-speak ourselves sometimes. There's an interesting and quite counter-intuitive theory about how gravity affects bullets in flight. Imagine, a perfectly flat plain, and a rifle set up with its barrel perfectly parallel to the surface of that plain and, say, five feet above the surface. Suppose now that the rifle is fired, and at exactly the instant the bullet leaves the muzzle of the rifle, another bullet of the same type is simply dropped by hand from the same height. In theory, the bullet that was dropped and hits the ground at your feet, and the bullet that was fired from the rifle and hits the ground perhaps a mile down range, should both hit the ground at exactly the same time as each other. Notwithstanding the forward velocity of the rifle bullet, gravity should act on both bullets to exactly the same degree, causing them both to fall the five feet to the ground at exactly the same rate. I don't know if anyone has ever tried to prove the truth of this theory, but I think it would be an interesting experiment!
Love your take on the Sharpe series, I am proud to have been a Rifleman in the Royal Green Jackets, in both the Army Cadet Force and the TAVR for 30 years. I noticed someone asked you if the 95th still existed. Well from its formation in 1802 as the 95th Regiment of Foot (1800 if you allow for the "Experimental Corps of Riflemen") up until 1816 when the number 95th was reassigned to the newly formed 95th (Derbyshire) Regiment of Foot, it then became the Rifle Brigade, the next change came in 1958 when the Rifle Brigade became 3rd Battalion Green Jackets, it stayed like this until 1st January 1966 when it became the 3rd Battalion The Royal Green Jackets. The next change was In 1992, the 1st Battalion The Royal Green Jackets was disbanded and the 2nd and 3rd Battalions of The Royal Green Jackets renumbered 1st Battalion The Royal Green Jackets and 2nd Battalion The Royal Green Jackets respectively. Then on the 1 February 2007 a new Regiment was formed combining The Royal Green Jackets, The Light Infantry, Devonshire and Dorset Regiment and the Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire and Wiltshire Regiment the new Regiment being The Rifles, The 2nd Battalion The Royal Green Jackets became the 4th Battalion of The Rifles, so the 4th Battalion The Rifles can trace its history back to the 95th. Just a couple of other bits of history, within the Regiment the bayonet is always referred to as a Sword, marching pace is 140 paces to the minute, double march is 180 to the minute, the rifle is carried at the trail, foot drill movements are always started from and after completion return to the ready position,
Large hats were used for intimidation when you came marching on longer ranges. It is the same idea with the Bearskin hats that is still used by the Queen's Guard today.
@@pjmoseley243 I hope that the British police hats never go away, they are so iconic and funny. The danish police hat is just a cap with the police logo, and if it is the more parade uniform it looks like a navy hat.
@@YekouriGaming In the UK we used to have minimum height restrictions for the police so with the big Hat and being above the average height of the population the police looked awesome but now that has all changed do to burgers and hot dogs lol, The Police are much more rotund and have hi viz rotund coats lol.
The Sword Bayonette was meant to able to be used as a sword or Bayonette infact the SwordBayonette was often not used in the bayonette role as it make the gun really front heavy.
It's funny you said, "that's a sword!" In the famous charge of the Lighthorse at Beersheba in 1917, the Australian mounted infantry wielded bayonets instead of swords - they were plenty long enough! :-)
A flintlock uses a spark from a flint striking metal to ignite the powder , before that there was matchlock which used a lit cord to ignite the powder .
A smoothbore gun is as stated above does not have rifling (sort of a curved channel that spirals down the barrel on the inside). More importantly it is also slightly wider than the bullet so the bullet can be dropped down the barrel pretty easily. A rifled bullet is almost the same size as the barrel so it requires being rammed home (with the ramrod) as it touches the sides - this means when it does travel down the sides of the rifled barrel, the spiral cut grooves cause the bullet (more a cynlinder than a sphere) to start to spin so when it leaves the rifle it is spin stabilised, shoots straighter and has a much better range and accuracy in general. Why this size is important is both it needs to touch the sides and cannot just 'rattle down the barrel on its way out' but due to needing to ram it down the barrel it takes 4-5x longer to reload. This means in a skirmish formation (when the men fire when needed, and take time to aim) there will be no standing in a line doing volley fire. Rifled barrels only started to be standard issue to all troops when the introduction of the Minié ball bullet (it could be made smaller to load as quick but due to the way it was designed, the rear of the bullet expanded and touched the sides allowing a spin; although not as accurate as a tightly fitting bullet it made semi accurate shooting possible en masse.... although it was the introduction of the breach loading bullet (you put the bullet into a space near the handle, not down the barrel, and eventually metal jacketed self contained amunition did the concept of providing accurate riffles to all the army become standard. honestly - the evolution of standard infantry arms from 1800-1900 is a fasinating journey. Rifles designed in like the 1890s served in two world wars.
5:52 he is talking about the smoothbore musket which is basically the type of musket used mostly by the armies of that time, the British had the Brown Bess(east indian company version) musket.. while rifles had become well known by the Napoleonic wars, they were harder to produce, and really didn't fit the mentality of linear combat back then, once uniforms began to become less bright, and the wars become much larger scaled, and muskets being less accurate rifles began to be used when they started fitting the fast paced and larger area based war and battles. And before muskets there were even more longer firearms more so like hadncannons typically used in the pike(pikes or spears) and shot(firearms) time period
The Bess rifles eventually made their way to the Mexican Army, for the war with the USA in the 1840s. I believe the Mexicans actually had an accuracy advantage over the USA. The big mistake the Mexicans made is they went extremely cheap on the black powder. The Bess rifles got gunked up and became useless. Leading to the USA routing them at key engagements. (very simplified paraphrase of what I remember lol)
The flints used for flintlock muskets and rifles more than likely came from “Grimes Graves “ which are really pits, and are near Thetford in Norfolk UK. The flint was of superior quality. and some were actually exported to the US, and used in the civil war there.
Grimes Graves is a Neo Paleolithic site where many holes were dug to leave offerings to the gods. The name Grimes Graves is a Norse term which translates as "Odins Holes". Grimes being one of Odins many other names.
Rifling is the process of arranging grooves into the inside of a barrel so that it spins the ball being shot therefore giving it extra stability and the shooter superior accuracy.
An interesting point about making the soldier look more intimidating actually went into alot of uniform designs of the time. For example, the Swedish police in 1903 still used the old uniform from the 1870s I believe with a tall Pickelhelm also used by the Prussians, and coat buttons that got wider apart the further up the coat you go. The point of making the buttons go wider is to make the policeman appear broad-shouldered and strong. Apparently this design to try and make the wearer look more menacing worked well.
Another great video, your genuine pleasure in learning is always good to watch! A couple of things that might help with understanding how rifling works is firstly looking at how American football quarterbacks or rugby players throw the ball to create accurate, long distance passes, the spin put onto the ball, keeps it stable in the air over a much longer distance than otherwise, in the same way that spin put on bullets (or balls in the case of Baker Rifle) allows them to travel over a longer distance more accurately. Also if you look at the bit at the beginning of James Bond films when he walks across the screen, turns and shoots the sequence is filmed as if down the rifled barrel of a gun (ie, Bond shoots at the person aiming at him), this gives an impression of what a rifled barrel looks like on the inside.
•Redcoat, Bloody Back, Lobster, etc..., but green uniforms were used for special forces. Civil War sharp shooters in the Union Army also wore green uniforms. •So a smoothbore musket means that inside the barrel is just a metal tube, so when the powder ignites and sends the ball flying, it will bounce around until it comes out. This means you could aim at something and miss or shoot around it. Hence why soldiers were in long lines firing multiple volleys. With rifles, inside the barrel are grooves called rifling, which spines the bullet and makes the gun more accurate. •All modern guns have rifling. When you find a more efficient way to hit the target, you go all in. •Probably not.
For a book try "Rifleman Dodd" or "Death to the French", they're the same book under different titles (US vs UK or something I guess, often different titles in different markets) by C.S. Forester. His Horiato Hornblower books were some of my favourites as a kid. Along with Dudley Pope's Ramage series of novels, somewhat better than the Master and Commander series by Patrick O'Brian that got made into a movie.
Oh you should definitely get involved on some of the Beating Retreat displays (It's an evening of Military music with special international military bands as guests (Notably in 2015 the Bundeswehr were invited to celebrate the Waterloo Bicentenary, and in 2014, the USMC Band and Royal Dutch Marines, for the Royal Marines' 350th Anniversary), held on Horse Guards' Parade, and rotates between the Army and the Royal Navy (Represented by the Massed Bands of H.M Royal Marines). The Light Division (Which involves mostly The Rifles and Royal Gurkha Rifles) tend to put on a bloody good display, most notably when the Buglers advance at the double.
The difference between a rifle and a smoothbore is that the barrel on a rifle is grooved all the way down to improve accuracy and higher muzzle velocity.
You aim at the enemy with a rifle and you point your musket in the enemies direction..So rifles get a far higher percentage of hits per 100 shots but were far fewer in early years as it was more expensive and complex to produce.
There were two rifle regiments, each with multiple battalions. 95th Rifles and 60th Rifles. 60th Rifles were also known as the Royal Americans. When the 95 Rifles were taken out of the list of numbered regiments the new 95th Regiment became the Derbyshire Regiment, which was not a rifles regiment. But the British Regimental System is something best avoided if you want to retain your sanity.
Doing family history and working out which regiment of foot was which , where , in the Mid 18th Century is fun, especially when the WO muster roles turn up misfiled at Kew, some under ADM files as the Regiments of Foot were on ships for Canadian/ American / Caribbean campaigns, and as attrition by death (more from illness than combat), or injury, either regiments would be needed to man the vessels, or the mariners found themselves on land duties. Most dont seem to have got paid either, I had one deducted three days pay for one days AWOL. (records held at Woolwich at one time ). I have some ancestors involved against the french including into napoleonic and tales of capturing Napoleon on each of his exiles, but I cannot see a name I recognise in the crew members of the ship/s involved on the inbound to England Journey, maybe it was on an outbound one , but the ship's log of the captain made interesting, if difficult to read the script), reading.
Match was the rope doused in chemicals that slowly burnt that was held by an S shaped arm called a serpent this rotates when the trigger is pulled and sets off the gun by setting the charge off in a pan that travels through a hole into the gun barrel to set off the main charge, if it didn't go off it's called a flash in the pan. Next came a wheel lock which was clock work that spun against a piece of steel producing sparks that set the pan charge off and thus the guns main charge. Flint was next used held and brought down to strike steel produce sparks etc, etc. Smooth bore is as the name says smooth, rifled is grooves in the barrel that spin the bullet and is more accurate becouse of the gyroscopic effect on the bullet. I'm guessing a rifle is thus a gun with a rifled barrel. PS. Going off half cocked is a reference to the flint springing forwards without you pulling the flint fully back and locked in place.
for something to do with the times of the Napoleonic wars would recommend to react to "Thomas Cochrane: Craziest Sea Captain in History". absolute mad lad and legend in south America!
There are several good channels with videos of flintlock and percussion firearms. Rob of BritishMuzzleloaders has in depth videos on the Baker rifle and it's use. Capandball has videos of both rifles and "smoozbore" muskets;) The painting of the soldiers in square was "Quatre Bras"(1875) by Elizabeth Thompson, Lady Butler. She did several stunning paintings of events in British military history of the 19th century.
Uniforms dirty, rifles clean! - "Fix Swords" Celer et Audax! The spirit of the 95th & 60th lived on via The RGJ and now The Rifles. "Black & Green Finest Colours Ever Seen"
The Rifles and the Light Infantry based their uniforms on the Light Cavalry. Heavy infantry have a corps of drums but light infantry have a corps of bugles. So heavy infantry beat retreat but light infantry sound retreat. Today all the Rifle and light infantry have been combined into The Rifles. On youTube is both Beating Retreat and Sounding Retreat.
Over The Hills and far away was their song. With the Bakers were sword bayonets. Smooth bores are like shot guns. they wore green to blend in with the woods. I've read the books and have the 17 disc series.
Fun fact: how flintlock muskets and rifles worked still survives in phrases of the English language today. A "flash in the pan" refers to when the flint ignited the powder in the pan but it didn't set off the main charge and fire the musket ball as it should. "Keeping your powder dry" refers to how muskets were vulnerable to becoming useless in rain when the gunpowder got damp, so soldiers would have to keep their nerve and shield them from the rain until it stopped.
The Baker rifle and the 95th Rifles employed their cartridge differently to those using the Tower pattern (Brown Bess) musket. The Rifles were equipped with a separate powder horn with which they charged the pan, using a better quality of powder. This improved the reliability of the flash in the pan and the certainty of a rifle actually discharging. The standard line infantry regiments (the Redcoats) used a complete cartridge containing powder and ball from which they took a small quantity with which they charged the pan. The Rifles also had a small mallet which they used to tap home the wadded ball into the barrel. This more snug fit for the wadded ball enabled it to grip the rifling more effectively and reduced ‘windage’ (the clearance between the musket ball and the side of the barrel as it moved down the bore). This tighter fit improved accuracy & range for the Baker rifle.
Every Commonwealth regiment has an Honourary Colonel in Chief, which is a member of the Royal Family. This person acts as a patron (or matron) to the regiment, presenting the colours, officiating at ceremonials, and, in older times, sometimes privately subsidizing the regiment, since parliament is notoriously parsimonious. Occasionally, a particularly beloved Colonel in Chief will have their name added to the regiment's title. The Queen Mother was Colonel in Chief of my regiment (The Toronto Scottish) for so long that the regiment itself is now known as "Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother's Own" even though she has passed on. She was a grand old dragon too - we loved her to bits.
@Andrew Charles (very regal). I looked on Google and found this about the Green Howards The Green Howards (Alexandra, Princess of Wales's Own Yorkshire Regiment; 19th Regiment of Foot) Anniversaries Alma (20 September) Commanders Last Colonel in Chief King Harald V of Norway There was a Harald of Norway killed near York in 1066 with this being a Viking bit of the world, so I used to remember the visits to the regiment being on local TV.
@@andrewcharles459 You could not get more common than my name, but my grandparents had royal names too, as seems to have gone with the time they were from.
@@alansmithee8831 When Prince William was flying for the East Anglian Air Ambulance, he landed on the green in front of my house for a call down the road. As he wasn't needed for assisting with the patient, he waited by the helicopter and I had a chance to chat - as a private pilot myself he'd heard me admiring the approach into a cramped landing zone, so he invited me over and (as if it were necessary) introduced himself to me - as Wills, which he insisted on rather than the formally correct "Your Highness". When he asked my name and I told him, he said "oh, that's grandpapa's name" so I grinned and told him my middle name - William. We had quite a laugh and a great discussion on flying, and I asked him to call me Phil. So in a few years, I'll be able to say that I've been on first-name terms with the King if I live that long. I think he will do an excellent job, too.
@@phillee2814 My birthday and my grandma's was his parents wedding day and my grandad, her husband was William Henry, though not on the Smith side. I was luckily not called W H Smith though, even though I used to buy my Ladybird history books including one on the Royal Wedding and Airfix figures of Waterloo there.
My 3 x great grandfather served in the 95th Rifles during the Napoleonic wars through all the Peninsula campaigns in Portugal, Spain, France and Belgium. Have a transcript of his diary written during this period and he describes his skirmishing with French Troops before the battle of Waterloo and during….a fascinating read.
There are many kinds of red scarlet but also crimson, vermillion for example. Most armies were equiped at the time with smooth bore muskets. the barrel was essentially a tube. For a practiced individual you could get off 3 shots in a miunute but much slower if not practiced because the loading system was complicated and loaded down the barrel from the front. Rifles like the Baker had spirals in the inside of the barrel that put a spin on the ball as it was propelled up the barrel which was much more accurate and had a longere range. The downside was because the ball fit in the barrel more tightly it was slower to load because you had to push the ball down a tighter barrel when loading. Smooth bore muskets were most common in armies until about 1850. A Frenchman inventerd the minnie ball that was signidicant smaller than the barrel but when fired expanded to fit the inside grooves in the barrel. This was the kind of gun most commonly used in the American civil war. The next step as a gun that could be loaded from the back of the barrel rather than shoving it all the way down the barrel, this was called breech loading gun. This guy is not accurate about bayonets which essentiall turned the musket into a pike(spear). Battles were fought at rather close range. so if the other side were slow at reload like a rifle (say at50 yards) your opponent had 30 seconds to come at you with a bayonet, similarly if your enemy broke, chasing you would not be able to reload but you could use the bayonet. It was both a defensive and offensive weapon. The Baker used a longer(sword )bayonet because the rifle was considerably shorter than the muskets used by the regular army. The 60th rifles were called the Royal Americans because they had been recruited in the american Revolution in the US. Tall hats were actually common among soldiers in other times of history for the reason he gave the hats worn by the regualse were even higher and are related to the later top hats of today.
Matchlock guns preceded flintlocks. Both used the familiar hammer action that some guns still use, where, on pulling the trigger, a hammer falls to ignite the charge. However, with a matchlock, this hammer had a match (a slow-burning piece of rope) which descended to ignite the priming charge in a pan (which in turn set off the main charge in the gun itself). With a flintlock, the match was replaced by a flint, which hit a steel, that create a spark, that ignited the primer, etc.). Rifling is a feature of all guns these days that fire bullets. It is helical grooving in the barrel which makes the bullet spin and fly straighter and further. Muskets did not have rifling. Policemen's helmets were also designed to give the wearers more “bearing” as well as defence against miscreants bopping them on the head.
The designation of "Prince Consort's Own" is a bit misleading here. It doesn't come from the napoleonic era, but from about 50 years later, when Prince Albert, the husband of Queen Victoria, was given the colonalcy of the unit. Albert, even if he was married to the queen, wasn't called "king"... he was just the queen's consort.
There were 2 rifle regiments during the Napoleonic period, the 95th and the 60th Royal American Regiment. Both equipped with the Baker rifle and sword bayonet.
For weapons stuff: Ian McCallums Forgotten Weapons and InRange TV on YT. A smoothbore musket...is basically a piece of pipe that you ram lead balls and gunpowder into. Ignited through a pan with gunpowder with a spark from a flintstone hitting a mental piece (the Older version was...a Matchlock, just a glowing piece of string that lits the gunpowder in the pan). With muskets, you most, in Line Tactics just hammer the enemy with lead until he breaks. A Rifle was meant to hit important targets, Officers, Drummerboys/ Bugglars, the guy carrying the Colors.
Or for British Musketry, the britishmuzzleloaders channel as linked in my other comment here. Demonstrations, kit and musket drills (loading, firing, etc.) including the 1800 Baker of the 95th.
Rifle comes from the 'rifling' that is the pattern bored into the barrel spinning the ball to make it more accurate as apposed to smooth bore which is just a smooth barrel
I’m on the third book (chronological) in the Sharpe series by Bernard Cornwell and haven’t seen the series. So far he’s actually serving in India and is a redcoat, making his way through the ranks. It’s fantastic and I hope the series lives up to what I’ve read so far in terms of quality.
The first three books in India are great, but bear in mind if you keep reading them chronologically, the others between that and Sharpe's Rifles get a bit weak - I wish I'd read them in publication order instead.
I Love the books and the movies, I hope you enjoyed the shows that you've watched to date. The ignition systems went through a process of improvement over time with the start being a piece of treated cloth cord called a slow match, being held (sometimes with a special stick) in the hand. The next improvement was the Matchlock, where the same slow match was held in a mechanism on the gun. This also improved over time, from the first in the early 1400's to the last being the caplock in the 1820's. The innovation progression sped up with the various pre-modern firearm ignition systems being wheellock, snaplock, snaphance, doglock, miquelet lock, flintlock, and finally caplock.
Jane Austin talked about Scarlet Fever in her novels. It was a commentary on the sudden interest in the British army of the time when they could've been invaded by the French. .
So a flint lock rifle is fired by black powder, this is placed into the rifle before wadding and the ball is added, this is rammed"home" then external to the rifle at the trigger there is the "lock" this has a small pan that is filled with black powder and a port from this pan extends into the barrel, the "lock" holds an actual flint and is held open when "cocked" in pressing the trigger the lock is released and moves towards the pan, it hits a striker plate causing a shower of sparks to fly into the pan, igniting the black powder, this extends via the port into the barrel igniting the main charge, if the main charge doesn't ignite this is called a flash in the pan (where the saying comes from) The earlier version was a "match"lock this held a length of wick instead of the flint, this burned very slowly, ideally before pulling the trigger a blow would cause it to burn hotter and remove any ash, on pulling the trigger just like the flint lock the match would be carried into the pan. These were both superceded by the percussion cap that was placed on an anvil with a port into the barrel, this was stuck by a hammer that was released by the trigger, similar to modern guns, except the cap is combined into the cartridge that hold the explosive charge and the ball (the bullet itself is still technically called a ball)
Muskets, used by the majority of troops during the period 1600-1830s, were smooth bore weapons (ie, just a basic tube that the musket ball travelled down), and started like as matchlock weapons (a match/fuse was used to ignite the powder in the pan to explode the musket ball down the tube), by the Napoleonic period were all flintlock (a flint striking a metal surface, just like a lighter). Rifles are named so, because of the rifling of the the barrel (a spiral pattern inside the barrel) which causes the bullet to spin in flight. making it much more accurate and longer range (like when a quaterback throws a football, he spins the ball).
The Flintlock gave many phrases which are still commonly used. This includes "Flash in the Pan", the "Pan" being the small bowl on the outside of the weapon which houses the priming charge which allows the main charge to be ignited. The phrase denoted the primer going off but not the main charge, a flash but no shot. Another is "Going off half-cocked" this alludes to the loading of the firearm, the firer will half-cock the weapon to allow the pan to be open. If the firer manages to fire the weapon in this state the spark may not be enough to fully fire the weapon so you only get a partial discharge not the full charge.
Captain Patrick Ferguson, a young Scottish rifle pioneer, saw General Washington at the battle of Brandywine Creek, in 1777. He could have shot and killed him, but didn't, because it isn't "cricket" to shoot a man in the back. Another reason for tall hats is a head shot takes off the hat, not your head. This saved Abraham Lincoln while touring the defenses of Washington DC, when he got his tall hat shot off.
A Flintlock is the method of firing the gun. It consists of a spring loaded hammer that has a flint attached that strikes on an iron plate producing a spark. The sparks ignite a small quantity of gunpowder that burns down a small hole to the main charge in the breech. This system was used on many guns of the time, from pistols up to the 32 pound cannon on Warships. The Baker rifle differed from the 'Brown Bess' musket that was used by the Line Infantry in having a rifled barrel, The musket is a smooth bore gun. Both the Brown Bess and the Baker were muzzle loader flintlocks, the Baker was a more expensive weapon that was issued to an elite force able to make use of it. The rifled barrel made it more accurate and gave a longer range which made it a good gun for sniping and harassing the enemy from cover. [The reason for the Green Jackets] Think of the Green Jackets as the Special Forces of the day, much like the SAS or SBS in the British Military or the Green Berets in the US. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flintlock ruclips.net/video/WOeYPpOblAw/видео.html Our 'prentice Tom may now refuse To wipe his scoundrel Master's Shoes, For now he's free to sing and play Over the Hills and far away. Over the Hills and O'er the Main, To Flanders, Portugal and Spain, The queen commands and we'll obey Over the Hills and far away. We all shall lead more happy lives By getting rid of brats and wives That scold and brawl both night and day - Over the Hills and far away. Over the Hills and O'er the Main, To Flanders, Portugal and Spain, The queen commands and we'll obey Over the Hills and far away. Courage, boys, 'tis one to ten, But we return all gentlemen While conquering colours we display, Over the hills and far away. Over the Hills and O'er the Main, To Flanders, Portugal and Spain, The queen commands and we'll obey Over the Hills and far away.
From my memory an old English saying “ use your loaf” meaning use your brain. Came from the The Peninsular War where the rifleman would place his issue loaf of bread on his bayonet and place his hat on top then Hold it up from a hidden location to draw out the position of an enemy sniper. Never saw that in Sharpe though
... usually it's said to come from rhyming slang: head = loaf of bread, then you drop the bit that Actually Rhymes to have a single word again: loaf. "Have a butchers" = look = butchers hook" and so on and so forth.
Yes I heard that too but I did do some research and it seems to Have been from the wars. I would not want to argue the point because I have no clear evidence. What is certain the process of putting loaf on bayonet did happen
The problem with the smooth barrelled muskets is that as the weapon fires, the round bullet bounces along the inside of the barrel as it moves forward. The direction the ball heads once leaving the barrel will be heavily influenced by where it last bounced, e.g. If the ball touched the bottom of the barrel just as it leaves, then the shot is likely to go high as the ball is moving both forwards and upwards, reducing the accuracy and energy of the projectile. The rifle's grooves cause the ball to spin, reducing this effect, increasing the range, accuracy and power of the shot. A musket's effective range tended to be in the 100-200 meters, whilst the rifles were more like 400 meters. Down side to the rifle is the grooves made it slower to load, so you'd usually only get 2 shots a minute, compared to the musket's 3-4 shots. This is why you tended to see specist troops such as skirmishers using the rifles whilst the mass rank & file stuck to muskets. You don't need to be accurate when you have 100 muskets shooting at a block of 200 men.
There is a short video that explains the rifles history and why they used the bugle and not the drum as per normal line regiments, all rifle regiments had a silver bugle on their cap with the number or name i.e. DLI for Durham light infantry. the video is called 1 Rifles Bugle Breakfast
They built the stories on the rifle regiment because the line regiments, we're more controlled and directed. The rifles skirmished and were a little more independent, they could go off scouting and having adventures, which the bulk of the army wouldn't be doing. It's a more glamorous role!
There were originally two rifle regiments formed in the British army the 60th and the 95th both dressed in green coats the 60th had red facings and the 95 had black. Both were armed with the Baker rifle, much more accurate and with a longer effective range than the smooth bore musket then in general service with all armies but much slower to load. Both regiments are represented in the Sharpe series and my favourite character from the series Sharpes friend Captain Fredrickson is a member of the 60th. Rifle regiments were formed in response to lessons learned from fighting in the American forests hence the green coats. The red of the red coats varied enormously and could be a dull red or a brick reddish brown fading down to a dull pink during service, line officers wore scarlet a much brighter hue akin to that worn for ceremonial duties by the brigade of Foot Guards today. The origin of the red coat was from the uniforms worn by Cromwell’s New Model Army, one the first universally uniformed and fully professional armies ever.
muskets are smooth bore rifles have grooves cut in spiral one revolution or turn in the barrel to spin the bullet and give it stability in flight versus tossing a round ball out of a tube
The regular "redcoat" infantry of the british army had Brown Bess muzzle loaded, flintlock musket (which is a long gun with a smooth barrel. you load the musket ball and the gun power into the musket and jam it down with a rod, then the flint on the catch at the back slams down when you pull the trigger, causing a spark and igniting the gunpowder). these were rifled, which means they had spirals inside to make them more accurate, but worked in a similar way otherwise. Infantry weapons today vary, but the standard infantry weapon is usually a rifle with a 20-30 round magazine and is usually semi-automatic or fully automatic. You mention the M16, that is an Assault Rifle or Semi-Automatic Rifle, not a machine gun. an example of a machine gun would be an M240B or MG42
WW2 tanks used rifled barrel for increased stability, but those wear to fast. Today smooth bore is used in almost all tank guns, with sabot rounds (a heavy round that separates into small pieces after exiting the barrel, leaving a thin projectile, giving it a high kinetic energy and piercing capability).
Flintlock guns use a spring to strike a sharp flint on a piece of hardened carbon steel (frissen) producing sparks, it is ingeniously made so it opens a small compartment (pan) with powder outside the barrel as it strikes, that allows the sparks to ignite the powder in the pan causing a "flash", that flash then travels throug small hole in the barrel to main charge that ignites pushing the bullet out. A failed ignition of the main charge is where expression "nothing but a flash in the pan" comes from btw. M16 and M4 carbine are rifles. more or less all guns and pistols/revolvers firing single bullets have rifled barrels since 1850's and almost 100%, from 1900 on only shotguns and special stuff like harpoon guns... have unrifled barrels (some shotguns have rifling to make things more complicated) The rifling forces the bullet to spin stabilising the flight allowing much more accuracy
For context on Rifle and Smooth-bore. Rifles like many have said house a spiral grove inside the barrel, where as a Smoth-bored Musket is just a tube. In modern day Rifles usually have 1/4 of the barrel rifled, but accuracy is factored by speed, weight or mass of a bullet. A Shotgun is pretty much a Smooth-bore in modern day since you have more projectile flung out the barrel.
Officers wore fine scarlet tunics made up individually by tailors. The rank and file wore red (hence red coats) which tended to fade to a brick red colour with time.
A rifle - Rifled Barrel, a barrel engineered with a helical groove within to spin the projectile making its trajectory straighter and more accurate than that of a projectile fired from a smoothbore barrel.
worth looking at the history of krups and its long range guns ( carriage etc , mounted) in the C19th and the difficulties they had with rifling and steel production, they sent spies to UK to check on british means of making iron for guns and steel for armour plate and they still didnt get the information they wanted. ! , Both swedish and british steel was superior to what the Germans could turn out, but the Germans had a volume advantage
The Rifle Brigade consisted of the 95th, the 60th "The King's American Rifles" and the 43rd/52nd Oxford and Bucks. Later they became the Royal Greenjackets with the battallions being numbered 1 - 3 in the reverse order I've listed them.
The rifles, like the smoothbores, were flintlock - meaning that the gunpower was ignited by sparks provided by a piece of flint striking a metal bar. The weapon is muzzle loaded by putting a measure of black powder down into the barrel and then a paper patch was rammed down to holds the power in place then the ball rammed in after the patch. On the side of the weapon is a large S shaped hammer which holds a piece of flint. Next to that is the striker plate and a small container for powder called the pan. Some more powder is applied to the pan, the hammer pulled back, the striker put in place. To fire, you pull the trigger, the hammer falls, the flint hits the striker causing sparks. The sparks ignite the power in the pan which burns into a small hole into the barrel and ignites the power in the barrel, sending the bullet out of the barrel. Rinse and repeat. This also brought phrases into common use such as going off half cocked - when the hammer falls from the half cock position and firing the gun. Flash in the pan - when the power in the pan ignites but does not ignite the power in the barrel. All flash, no bang. By the time of the US Civil War, the flintlock had generally been replaced by the percussion cap. During the war, the percussion cap was replaced by metallic cartridges that had an inbuilt primer meaning that the soldier only had to load the cartridge into the gun and then fire it making loading and firing faster. This is the type of ammunition used today. Modern firearms (rifles, handguns, machineguns etc) all use rifled barrels. And Sharpe is a most excellent series!
Hey SoGal, been following ya for a couple or more months now. my first comment tho. The tall helmets/hats were to misdirect the accuracy of the muskets volley shot so that the shooter from a longer distance would over shot their balls and miss their target. Rifles were a game changer and over took the muskets in terms of high accuracy and re-loading such that it was the technological difference in the Opium wars in China.
This Regt eventually became part of The Royal Green Jackets and formed their 3rd Bn (3RGJ) Their sister Regt, The Kings Royal Rifle Corps also used the baker rifle and also became part of The Royal Green Jackets forming their 2nd Bn (2RGJ) Both Bns still exist and form part of The Rifles, a light infantry Regt of the British Army. I served as a Rifleman with 2RGJ from ‘76-‘86 As a side issue, The KRRC started is life as The Royal American Rifles and wearing green and buckskin, fought unconventionally against the french in N’America. The Regimental moto is Celer et Audax (Swift and bold) and was given to the Regt at the battle of Quebec by Gen Wolfe. That moto is now the moto of The RIFLES.
Prior to the Napoleonic wars most infantrymen were armed with muskets which had a smooth bore inside the barrel, and fought in line or column. During that period a small number of elite units were supplied with rifles, that is, a weapon in which the barrel was rutted with groves that spiraled from breech to bayonet. They were far more accurate at hitting what they were aimed at, and riflemen became more mobile on the battlefield and involved in skirmish and ambush. At the time, military companies and regiments were often known by the name of their commander, or patron (who put up the money to arm, clothe and feed them). In the case of the 95th, it was the "Prince Consort", that is the Prince of Wales who ruled with his father, so the 95th was "the Prince Consort's own".
there was "matchlock" and "flintlock". Match was a chord infused with powder that smouldered when lit, when you pulled the trigger the match would move forward and touch the powder pan, lighting the powder and firing the gun. Flintlock was metal and created a spark to light the powder pan.
For extra special shots, the Rifle man had leather patches as a wadding, and even had a small mallet to tamp home the bullet. They were trained in skermishing, a for runner of Modern Infantry tactics.
Hello SoGal. Looking sharp Roger, like the bayonet, in that shako. Gone to your head? 5.50 the rifle was effective against the British in AWI. The British learned from that as well as their German allies. The jäger (means hunter) were like the American frontier sharpshooters from that war. Some illustrations were from the same uniform books I had as a kid, which made me change from painting plastic to metal wargames figures. A reenactment group like this used to be in Bridlington on bank holidays and I used to go and watch on the excuse of taking my girlfriend and dogs to the seaside. I do hope you enjoy Sharpe as much as I did. It is on TV here in UK most Saturdays at present. It still have to pinch myself that the TV version had him from Keighley, like my family, as I keep saying on your comments. The 95th were always my favorite and some of the first metal figures I bought, probably because they always seemed more active than the pictures of scarlet jacketed men in square at Waterloo.
the lock was the mechanism by which the charge was ignited- the charge being the gunpowder that actually propelled the bullet. Matchlocks, involving a length of smouldering cord were ancient history even then. So where wheellocks, which generated sparks by means of a spinning disc. The standard for the time was a flintlock, where a piece of flint ( a particular kind of stone) was mounted in a spring loaded hammer which on release by means of the trigger would strike a spark that would ignite the powder in a small priming pan adjacent to a touchhole which lead to the the charge, thus igniting it and propelling the bullet. Most firearms of the time were smoothbore, just tubes. rifles had grooves which imparted a spin on the bullet improving accuracy. I have a possible difference with other commentators. The idea of using independent snipers in front of the main line derived from the French/Indian wars and the War of independence, where initially a scarcety of troops made it necessary and experience proved it useful. The French learned that lesson but failed to realise the advantage of the rifle. The uniform was an early attempt at camouflage- a soldier in bright colours is an easier target than one in dull colours. I guess you live in the States. Why don't you visit a gun club? I'm sure you could find an enthusiast could explain it better than me!
Love Sharpe, the green jackets of the 95th rifles. It's a very entertaining take on the history of the Napoleonic wars on the peninsula side which you haven't focused as much on. Enjoy
The regular smoothbore musket barrel was just a smooth metal rod or tube hence the name “smoothbore” but a rifle had rifling which are spiral grooves inside the barrel which make the musket ball spin while being fired and gives it more accuracy and range.
British regiments had a light company that was used for skirmishing, these were so successful that whole regiments were turned into light regiments, through amalgamation through the years the rifle regiments and the light regiments have been combined into The Rifles, they keep the uniforms, the traditions and the fast pace of marching of the rifles. There is also The Gurkah rifles.
I love the fact that you are trying to expand your knowledge of many different subjects but I would also like to know how you seem to know so little about anything, especially as you appear to be interested in so much. A mystery I hope you will reveal ? But keep going, a journey of a thousand miles starts with one step, I'm sure you know that one. 🤗
In 1816 following their distinguished service in the Napoleonic Wars The 95th Rifles became The Rifle Brigade and then in 1823 they were renamed The 95th (Derbyshire) Regiment of Foot. The Regiment was highly trained, educated and well disciplined thus enjoyed immense social prestige at this time. So much so that in 1861 on the death of its Colonel-in-Chief, Prince Albert, The Queen bestowed the title of ‘The Prince Consort's Own Rifle Brigade’ on the Regiment.
In 1948 the Regiment was merged with the King’s Royal Rifle Corps to form The Green Jackets Brigade further amalgamations followed with the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry in1958. In 1966 these three Regiments became the three battalions of the Royal Green Jackets and in 2007 were further merged with the Devonshire and Dorset Light Infantry, The Light Infantry and The Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire and Wiltshire Light Infantry to become The Rifles. And Being a good soldier is being able to fire 3 rounds per minute in any weather. BITE, POUR, SPIT, TAP, COCK, PRESENT, FIRE.
The term rifle refers to the creation of spiral grooves on the inside of a barrel which improves both effective range and accuracy, at the time of the creation of the 95th Regiment this was an expensive process so the majority of soldiers were equipped with muskets, which due to their smooth bores were notoriously inaccurate. The only smooth bore weapons still in use are shotguns, everything else is technically a rifle (from the smallest handgun to the largest artillery gun), although like many words the original meaning has largely been lost, and to most people a rifle is a long barreled single shot weapon. Flintlock refers to the method of lighting the gunpowder and replaced the earlier matchlock system, which brings another term, the meaning of which has changed, a match used to mean a length of smoldering rope, the use of which can be seen in some of the battle scenes in the Sharpe series, to fire cannons
The main difference between a smoothbore and a rifle is RANGE. Smoothbore muskets could be reloaded and fired up to 10 times per minute by well drilled troops, unlike rifles at the time (they could be reloaded about 6 times per minute). However, smoothbore muskets had an effective range of well below 50 yards and were inaccurate above about 30 yards. Rifles had ranges up to 250 yards and were used to pick off officers and cavalry leaders to disrupt columns and cavalry charges.
Quick update on rifles. The barrel of a traditional musket was a smooth tube. Easy to make, easy to load. Just pour the powder down, and drop a lead ball on top. Problem is they are only accurate up to 80 yards or so. Which is why the basic infantry stood in packed ranks and fired volleys. There was more chance of hitting the enemy. Rifling is putting a spiral groove down the barrel. It makes the projectile spin which adds accuracy, up to to 800 yards. The problem is if the ball is to grip the groove it has to be a tight fit. So the ball had to be hammered down the barrel, especially if it had been fired a few times and was beginning to foul up with soot. It wasn't a suitable weapon for mass use by averagely trained troops, but was OK for specialists. By the time of the American Civil war a Frenchman, Capt. Minnie had designed a lead bullet which had a hollow cup shaped Base, it would drop down the barrel easily, when it was fired the cup expanded and gripped the groove sufficiently to add the spin. No more hammering the bullet home. A flintlock used a stone - the flint - to make a spark that ignited the powder and fired the gun. It was in common use for a couple of hundred years, but could be compromised by damp conditions. Again, by the time of the ACW a percussion cap firing system had been devised that was waterproof, and repeating rifles with combined bullet and charge cartridge's were also coming in.
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Hmmm SoGal, I think you would definitely make General wayyy before the blonde presenter ! 😂... yep, General SoGal with her very own Scarlett 😆
Only time Sean bean doesn't get killed
A smoothbore musket has a barrel that is smooth on the inside. These when fired were inaccurate even at short ranges but was the only technology available at the start of the napoleonic wars.
The game changer came when the British invented the rifle and with the Baker rifle, brought it into battles in larger numbers. The inside of a rifle barrel has lans and grooves in a twist we know as rifling which gives the rifle it's name. When fired, the rifling on the inside of the rifle barrel gives the round being fired a twist and as it exits the barrel the round will spin in the air as it travels towards the target. This twist and spin they found gave a much better accuracy at a much longer range of shot.
This was a real help to the heavily outnumbered British soldiers during the napoleonic wars as British riflemen could open fire upon the enemy French armed with inferior smoothbore muskets at a range and accuracy where the French musketmen could not return fire at the British riflemen.
Therefore the difference in number of troops between the British and French armies was somewhat negated. It was like bringing a brand new superweapon that only the British had in numbers to the battlefield.
The rifle was probably the single most important invention that helped towards the British and its allies winning the napoleonic wars.
Smooth bore rifles have no rifling (they were normally called muskets), where the Baker rifle was rifled. Rifling is putting a spiral groove down the inside of the barrel to make the ball spin in the air. Doing this increases both accuracy and distance, the narrow the twist rate the more spin you get on the projectile. For instance a twist rate of 1 full revolution in 10 inches would be a twist rate of 1:10. For a look at all weapons and explanation and demonstrations of their uses I recommend watching Sean Bean on Waterloo which is in 2 parts on RUclips. They go through a range of weapons as well as explaining what happened at Waterloo.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rifling
ruclips.net/video/AyV_8nlg-wY/видео.html
ruclips.net/video/_9h-HFGC5OY/видео.html
You should research the Royal American Regiment. They started on Christmas Day 1755 as the 62nd Regiment of ffoot. This is when the Rifles changed their unifoms from red to green to fight in the forests of Noth America. They also chaned their thod of communications fron useing a drum to the use of a Bugle.. Today they are known as the 2nd Battalion The Rifles. there are videos on RUclips of them Changeing Guard at Windsor that you might lfind interesting.
The rifle refers to the rifling of the internal machining of the gun (rifle) In a spiral pattern which spins the ball and makes it more accurate.
Helical, not spiral.
@@stevemoppett2759 oh c' Mon....you're right but for most people ?
@@philosuileabhain861 Did you not do maths at school? Google the difference between a spiral and a helix. If online dictionaries are your only source of knowledge, maybe it's best to keep quiet.
@@philosuileabhain861 So you didn't learn maths, then? Thanks for confirming!
And that has what do with the Royal Green Jackets?
In the Sharpe series, there is a rifleman in the unit called Harris. He is based on a real person who kept a diary of his time in the Peninsula campaign. There is a book called 'The Recollections of Rifleman Harris' which tells his story. I don't know if it is still in print, but it is not a long book but would give you a good insight into what went down.
I had no idea that character was based on the real Harris. That is an excellent book, though I would not recommend it to someone who did not already know the ebbs and flows of the peninsular war. The narrative assumes knowledge in the reader that exists only among historians today, though it would be well enough remembered when it was written.
@@andrewcharles459 I kind of agree, but SoGal has covered the Peninsula campaign in previous videos, and Harris' book is not that hard to follow. I first read it when I was baby wargamer of 14... Omg, 1972! .... ahem, and I could follow it.
The Recollections of Rifleman Harris is available online. Just search for it. It's actually a pretty depressing book -- a lot of crap happens.
I've read the book and it really is a gritty tale of hardship and sacrifice. I served for 16 years yet I doubt I would have been capable of the feats of this era. The hardships that generation faced. If my memory serves me right Harris fought throughout the Pensinsular war and miraculously survived. He also fought in Denmark and Hollands. Until I read your comment I made no connection with this character in the series and the Rifleman Harris recollections. Fascinating - thanks.
@@scaleyback217 I'd like to know the nature of the army lash that a person can survive 700 lashes. I thought that was an exaggeration, but I found newspapers of the period that verified punishments of that severity. In the navy 300 lashes - less than half - would be a death sentence. There had to be something different about it, but I've never discovered what.
A rifle has a rifled barrel..in other words a spiral interior that kept the bullet straight, so more accurate. Smooth bore was just smooth inside.
Tanks today can also have rifled or smoothbore. The British Challenge2 is the only main battle tank today that is rifled. But the next Challenger will be Smoothbore. The advantage of rifled is more accurate at a further distance, and the tank is able to store more rounds. Sadly, the disadvantages outweigh the advantages. The problem with rifled is it is more expensive to replace a gun, and militaries are very cost-conscious today. But the bigger issue is, you can't fire missiles out of it as good as from a smoothbore. Missile rounds are preferred against modern Tank armor.
@@MarkVrem new one will be smooth bore
@@MarkVrem Correct, although it is worth noting that on smoothbore guns of the size fitted to tanks, the same effect of a spinning projectile can be achieved with pop-out fins on the projectile, giving the best of both worlds. Another benefit of smoothbores is that it is easier to design and make a range of ammunition types for them.
@@phillee2814 Yah you're right. Gonna need to correct my comment above. The reason smoothbore is more popular tanks today is because it allows tanks to mire missiles not just projectiles. Putting spin on a missile would actually hurt its accuracy. These missiles are preferred, now because they are better at penetrating the type of armor modern tanks use.
I spent 6 years in the Royal Green Jackets, a regiment with a direct link from the 95th Rifles. We had a number of small differences to other regiments in the British army, such as the command 'fix swords' instead of fix bayonets. And troops being called 'Rifleman' instead of private. 40 years ago now, and I still remember every day of my service, I shall be watching your channel with great interest. Keep up the good work....... Regards.
I worked with a RGJ ? Who told me about an officer not of the reg on a parade in Gibraltar who didn't know about your marching speed being different to his apparently it was very Benny hill and had everyone in the audience stitches.
@@dave_h_8742 Hi Dave, thanks for your reply....... Yes; that was a common event, not only for us, but with other Lt infantry regiments as well. Happy days......
Swift & Bold brother
Me too. 😀
I've been a fan of the Sharpe series since it first aired on PBS Buffalo. Have read most of the books, one is dedicated to Sean Bean and the historic notes are full of information. The note from Sharpe's Trafalgar starts: "Sharpe had no business being at Trafalgar, then neither did Admiral Villeneuve."
"Flintlock":
"Lock" here stands for any kind of complicated mechanical thingy. In this case, it is the mechanism that is used to ignite the charge of the gun.
"Flint" is just that... a flint. A type of stone that, when struck against steel, creates sparks.
So it is a mechanism that uses flint-and-steel, spring driven, to fire the gun.
Other types of "locks" are, for example, "matchlocks", where a burning match is mechanically brought to the powered, or "wheellocks" where the ignition mechanism consists of a spring-driven turning steel wheel striking sparks on a fixed piece of pyrite.
wasn't it because the mechanism would lock in place till fired rather then a hot/smoldering but of cloth/string put to it?
@@LordInter Yes, you are correct. I apologize for my mistake.
A Baker Rifle has a rifled barrel, a Brown Bess musket is smooth bore i have held both weapons they weigh similar to the SA80 used by The British Military.
Imagine if they rifled all their Brown Bess muskets earlier, just like the Enfield P51, british army would overcome french forepower a lot
@@salsaniggas8544 the good thing about the smoothbore is it was much cheaper and you could load it faster than a rifle. Rifle muskets didn't get more practical until after the Crimean War.
@@rc59191 Rifles were good for unconventional warfare and to increase the effect of the line infantry
"O'er the hills and o'er the main, through Flanders, Portugal and Spain, King George commands and we obey, over the hills and far away"
You'll enjoy the Sharpe series, it's very good, brilliantly acted and it really does capture how life was like for British soldiers back then. You certainly get a sense as to why Wellington described his men as 'Scum of the earth' I just hope you can understand Sean Bean's Yorkshire accent and he does tend to say the word 'BASTARD' quite a lot. 😉
PS. If you haven't already, watch the 1970 film 'Waterloo' starring Rod Steiger as Napoleon and Christopher Plummer as Wellington. It's truly excellent and is one of the most historically accurate movies ever made.
I watched the film when it came out as a young Soldier.
An earlier version had Queen Anne being obeyed and was obviously written with an Irish unit in mind.
ruclips.net/video/J7inAs35NU4/видео.html
Film does not match the era concernied in the song but we'll not quibble about the deliberate mistake. IMHO this version of greater historical interest than the King George version even though I prefer the Tam's rendition.
Classic film .
Wellington did describe his men as scum of the earth who enlist for drink. But in the full quote he then went on to say: “It is only wonderful that we should be able to make so much out of them afterwards”. “Red Coat” by Richard Holmes is also an excellent book that demolishes many of the myths about the British Army of this era.
@@stepheneaston8354 I heard Wellington say it! cheek, but he did hold my beer for me while I got on with the job ! lol
A couple of things not addressed either in this video or the Napoleonic Wars. One is "volley fire." The soldiers stood in 2 or 3 lines (ranks) and each rank fired in turn. They used single-shot muzzle-loading guns, which take time to reload. FIring by rank gave them time to reload before it was their rank's turn again. British infantry were trained to reload quickly and did it just about faster than any other army. This "quick fire" practice continued long after Napoleonic times, so much so, that when the Germans came up against the British Expeditionary Force (the first British troops in France) early in WW1, the Germans thought they were facing machine guns, not rifles. Second, bayonets were not just used defensively - they were used when charging an enemy to hopefully send them running away. You can see soldiers using bayonets fixed to rifles in documentaries and photos of both WW1 and WWII.
I learned from Sharpe the reload system , and the drill installed to make it effective, The main thing about Sharpe was the interplay with incompetent (bought commission) officers.
A good film to see this in action, albeit with Martini Henri breech loading rifles, is Zulu, staring a young Michael Cain.
ruclips.net/video/nQrE8vOM0ss/видео.html
@@highpath4776 Good point , and is another aspect that wasn't really made clear in the Napoleonic war videos. With very few exceptions, in the British Army (not sure about other countries) officers were not promoted on ability or seniority, but purchased their new rank, so wealthy people could quickly become senior officers. This practice only ended in 1871.
I've seen the Sharpe series on TV here in the UK, so I know you're in for a treat. Hope to see RUclips versions of your reactions to it. Found this video interesting, but you're right, you do pick up most of this from watching the series. As a student more of WW2 history, I did connect to the Rifle Brigade, which formed the 'Motor Battalions' in Armoured Divisions. The Motor Battalion was part of the Armoured (i.e. tank) Brigade and would ride in armoured half-track vehicles, while the infantry battalions in the Infantry Brigade were carried in trucks. In today's smaller British Army, a lot of famous infantry regiments are amalgamated into The Rifles Regiment. Currently, 5th Battalion of The Rifles Regiment carry on the Armoured Infantry role. Really sad how all these famous Regiments like the 95th Rifles get lost in all the history, but at least we have Sharpe to the rescue! Keep up the good work.
The focus of Sharpe:
The 95th Rifles and like troops were specialists. They had their role on a battlefield, but they weren't line-infantry... the "main guys". These were meant to fight as a tight formation. The Rifles were skirmishers, meant to fight independently, in pairs or small groups.
As such, they were used as scouts or rearguards.
And for a movie, it makes sense to focus on them. You have a group of individuals, going on their own adventures, instead of a huge mass of soldiers marching or fighting in a large group.
Is this a sort of early SAS( without the flying to the zone of combat obviously !)
@@highpath4776 Yes but no.
In the stories/movies, it of course makes sense to portray the protagonists as some sort of "special agents" or commandos, running from one hotspot to the next.
And it also makes sense to use troops trained to fight independently from centralized command for such a task.
In reality, such tasks - infiltration, sabotage, communication, spying - were given to all sorts of people, often young officers or mounted troops.
This was one reason the Baker was selected. The bullet only gripped the rifling when wrapped in a leather patch, which made loading more time consuming, but could be fired without. This meant rapid but inaccurate fire, which was good enough for closer range. This way rifle battalions could also perform the same function as line regiments, if so needed.
@@highpath4776 They were the elite soldiers of the time, certainly - and the ethos lasted. The current Chief of the Defence Staff, Nick Carter, began his service as a Green Jacket.
'Air' in SAS doesn't mean they always fly - it was originally a fiction, to fool the enemy, in N.Africa.
All British infantry regiments had skirmishers - i.e. their light company. The 95th were specialised skirmishers, which made them unusual in the British Army of the time (the others being the 60th “Royal American” Rifles. Skirmishers did have a role in set piece battles, which was to pick off enemy skirmishers, officers and NCOs and try to break up enemy formations before the main forces engaged. That’s why the rifle was so useful. I’m intruiged why anyone would go out of their way to make a video without having done the slightest bit of research beforehand. It’s lazy. It’s sloppy. It’s incompetent. And it’s clickbait.
Sharpe (rifles) and HornBlower(ships) both well worth teh watch
As you go through Dad's Army and Jones says "they don't like it up 'em" that's the bayonet he means.
If your talking about the 95th they used a short sword style. Hence the order fix swords rather than fix bayonets. This command lasted at least till the sixties. The regimental system was formalised after 1881 with regiments losing there number designation and getting names and regions to recruit from. For example the experimental rifle corps becomes the 95th regiment becomes the Rifle Brigade. in 1958 it forms part of ‘Green Jackets Brigade’ ,it’s amalgamated in 1966 with the other parts of the brigade to form ‘The Royal Green Jackets’. Not letting things lie the light infantry regiments and the green jackets were amalgamated into the Rifles in 2007.
@@Thetasigmaalpha The current Rifles still 'Fix swords!'
Note a Battalion, Regiment, Brigade, Division (the 95th were part of the elite Light Division) and Corps are all different sizes of formation.
@@Thetasigmaalpha The 95th Rifles dropped their number after Waterloo to become The Rifle Brigade. 95 went to The Sherwood Foresters. They both used the march "I'm 95"
The reason a rifle is called a rifle is because it has grooves on the inside of the barrel. These grooves (rifling) are helicoidal so as the ball moves down the bore it places an angular spin on it. This angular velocity counteracts the effect of gravity to a good degree and increases both the range of the ball and suppresses its movement curve, thus making it more accurate. Smooth bore doesn’t achieve this. All guns now have rifling.
Some shotguns don’t have rifling, also modern tank guns are smooth bore.
@@Thetasigmaalpha You are correct about smooth bore on main battle tanks though I was thinking about small arms so I ought to have been more specific. As for shot guns, they fire shot from a cartridge and are useful only at short range due to the distribution of shot at long range. Spin and rifling in a shot gun is not useful. So I should have perhaps said ‘most small arms’ are rifled. 😌
The spin imparted to the bullet by rilfing does not have any effect on gravity whatsoever. Rifling is not an "anti-gravity" device. The spin of the bullet helps to even out any imperfections in the bullet (lead ball) which might otherwise cause it to wander in flight thus making it more accurate. In modern bullets, which are long, narrow and pointed instead of being simple lead balls, the spin prevents them tumbling in flight because it creates a gyroscope like effect.
@@sirderam1 I guess I need to be a little more careful in my choice of words. 😊
@@markkettlewell7441
No worries, we all mis-speak ourselves sometimes.
There's an interesting and quite counter-intuitive theory about how gravity affects bullets in flight. Imagine, a perfectly flat plain, and a rifle set up with its barrel perfectly parallel to the surface of that plain and, say, five feet above the surface. Suppose now that the rifle is fired, and at exactly the instant the bullet leaves the muzzle of the rifle, another bullet of the same type is simply dropped by hand from the same height. In theory, the bullet that was dropped and hits the ground at your feet, and the bullet that was fired from the rifle and hits the ground perhaps a mile down range, should both hit the ground at exactly the same time as each other. Notwithstanding the forward velocity of the rifle bullet, gravity should act on both bullets to exactly the same degree, causing them both to fall the five feet to the ground at exactly the same rate.
I don't know if anyone has ever tried to prove the truth of this theory, but I think it would be an interesting experiment!
Love your take on the Sharpe series, I am proud to have been a Rifleman in the Royal Green Jackets, in both the Army Cadet Force and the TAVR for 30 years. I noticed someone asked you if the 95th still existed.
Well from its formation in 1802 as the 95th Regiment of Foot (1800 if you allow for the "Experimental Corps of Riflemen") up until 1816 when the number 95th was reassigned to the newly formed 95th (Derbyshire) Regiment of Foot, it then became the Rifle Brigade, the next change came in 1958 when the Rifle Brigade became 3rd Battalion Green Jackets, it stayed like this until 1st January 1966 when it became the 3rd Battalion The Royal Green Jackets. The next change was In 1992, the 1st Battalion The Royal Green Jackets was disbanded and the 2nd and 3rd Battalions of The Royal Green Jackets renumbered 1st Battalion The Royal Green Jackets and 2nd Battalion The Royal Green Jackets respectively. Then on the 1 February 2007 a new Regiment was formed combining The Royal Green Jackets, The Light Infantry, Devonshire and Dorset Regiment and the Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire and Wiltshire Regiment the new Regiment being The Rifles, The 2nd Battalion The Royal Green Jackets became the 4th Battalion of The Rifles, so the 4th Battalion The Rifles can trace its history back to the 95th.
Just a couple of other bits of history, within the Regiment the bayonet is always referred to as a Sword, marching pace is 140 paces to the minute, double march is 180 to the minute, the rifle is carried at the trail, foot drill movements are always started from and after completion return to the ready position,
Large hats were used for intimidation when you came marching on longer ranges. It is the same idea with the Bearskin hats that is still used by the Queen's Guard today.
and I believe the same for Police hats, different now lol
@@pjmoseley243 I hope that the British police hats never go away, they are so iconic and funny.
The danish police hat is just a cap with the police logo, and if it is the more parade uniform it looks like a navy hat.
@@YekouriGaming In the UK we used to have minimum height restrictions for the police so with the big Hat and being above the average height of the population the police looked awesome but now that has all changed do to burgers and hot dogs lol, The Police are much more rotund and have hi viz rotund coats lol.
Another aspect to the shako, the body of the hat offered a degree of protection from the downward sword strike of a cavalry sabre. Celer st Audax.
The Sword Bayonette was meant to able to be used as a sword or Bayonette infact the SwordBayonette was often not used in the bayonette role as it make the gun really front heavy.
The sword type was also used to feel for land mines my Father used one during ww2 and brought it home we played with it as children
It's funny you said, "that's a sword!" In the famous charge of the Lighthorse at Beersheba in 1917, the Australian mounted infantry wielded bayonets instead of swords - they were plenty long enough! :-)
The "bayonet" for the Baker was always referred to as a sword and when you see the length of them you can understand why
A flintlock uses a spark from a flint striking metal to ignite the powder , before that there was matchlock which used a lit cord to ignite the powder .
A smoothbore gun is as stated above does not have rifling (sort of a curved channel that spirals down the barrel on the inside). More importantly it is also slightly wider than the bullet so the bullet can be dropped down the barrel pretty easily.
A rifled bullet is almost the same size as the barrel so it requires being rammed home (with the ramrod) as it touches the sides - this means when it does travel down the sides of the rifled barrel, the spiral cut grooves cause the bullet (more a cynlinder than a sphere) to start to spin so when it leaves the rifle it is spin stabilised, shoots straighter and has a much better range and accuracy in general.
Why this size is important is both it needs to touch the sides and cannot just 'rattle down the barrel on its way out' but due to needing to ram it down the barrel it takes 4-5x longer to reload. This means in a skirmish formation (when the men fire when needed, and take time to aim) there will be no standing in a line doing volley fire.
Rifled barrels only started to be standard issue to all troops when the introduction of the Minié ball bullet (it could be made smaller to load as quick but due to the way it was designed, the rear of the bullet expanded and touched the sides allowing a spin; although not as accurate as a tightly fitting bullet it made semi accurate shooting possible en masse.... although it was the introduction of the breach loading bullet (you put the bullet into a space near the handle, not down the barrel, and eventually metal jacketed self contained amunition did the concept of providing accurate riffles to all the army become standard.
honestly - the evolution of standard infantry arms from 1800-1900 is a fasinating journey. Rifles designed in like the 1890s served in two world wars.
5:52 he is talking about the smoothbore musket which is basically the type of musket used mostly by the armies of that time, the British had the Brown Bess(east indian company version) musket.. while rifles had become well known by the Napoleonic wars, they were harder to produce, and really didn't fit the mentality of linear combat back then, once uniforms began to become less bright, and the wars become much larger scaled, and muskets being less accurate rifles began to be used when they started fitting the fast paced and larger area based war and battles. And before muskets there were even more longer firearms more so like hadncannons typically used in the pike(pikes or spears) and shot(firearms) time period
The Bess rifles eventually made their way to the Mexican Army, for the war with the USA in the 1840s. I believe the Mexicans actually had an accuracy advantage over the USA. The big mistake the Mexicans made is they went extremely cheap on the black powder. The Bess rifles got gunked up and became useless. Leading to the USA routing them at key engagements. (very simplified paraphrase of what I remember lol)
The flints used for flintlock muskets and rifles more than likely came from “Grimes Graves “ which are really pits, and are near Thetford in Norfolk UK. The flint was of superior quality. and some were actually exported to the US, and used in the civil war there.
A lot from The Mary Rose are sold for use today as there's barrels of them, in fact I've got one from a Militaria fair yrs ago.
Grimes Graves is a Neo Paleolithic site where many holes were dug to leave offerings to the gods. The name Grimes Graves is a Norse term which translates as "Odins Holes". Grimes being one of Odins many other names.
Sharpe! Reactions have truly reached a new high. Kudos.
Rifling is the process of arranging grooves into the inside of a barrel so that it spins the ball being shot therefore giving it extra stability and the shooter superior accuracy.
An interesting point about making the soldier look more intimidating actually went into alot of uniform designs of the time. For example, the Swedish police in 1903 still used the old uniform from the 1870s I believe with a tall Pickelhelm also used by the Prussians, and coat buttons that got wider apart the further up the coat you go. The point of making the buttons go wider is to make the policeman appear broad-shouldered and strong. Apparently this design to try and make the wearer look more menacing worked well.
You will also note that Rifleman's tunic buttons are black - so give no reflection
The chosen men, over the hills and far away.
Another great video, your genuine pleasure in learning is always good to watch! A couple of things that might help with understanding how rifling works is firstly looking at how American football quarterbacks or rugby players throw the ball to create accurate, long distance passes, the spin put onto the ball, keeps it stable in the air over a much longer distance than otherwise, in the same way that spin put on bullets (or balls in the case of Baker Rifle) allows them to travel over a longer distance more accurately. Also if you look at the bit at the beginning of James Bond films when he walks across the screen, turns and shoots the sequence is filmed as if down the rifled barrel of a gun (ie, Bond shoots at the person aiming at him), this gives an impression of what a rifled barrel looks like on the inside.
•Redcoat, Bloody Back, Lobster, etc..., but green uniforms were used for special forces. Civil War sharp shooters in the Union Army also wore green uniforms.
•So a smoothbore musket means that inside the barrel is just a metal tube, so when the powder ignites and sends the ball flying, it will bounce around until it comes out. This means you could aim at something and miss or shoot around it. Hence why soldiers were in long lines firing multiple volleys. With rifles, inside the barrel are grooves called rifling, which spines the bullet and makes the gun more accurate.
•All modern guns have rifling. When you find a more efficient way to hit the target, you go all in.
•Probably not.
For a book try "Rifleman Dodd" or "Death to the French", they're the same book under different titles (US vs UK or something I guess, often different titles in different markets) by C.S. Forester.
His Horiato Hornblower books were some of my favourites as a kid. Along with Dudley Pope's Ramage series of novels, somewhat better than the Master and Commander series by Patrick O'Brian that got made into a movie.
Oh you should definitely get involved on some of the Beating Retreat displays (It's an evening of Military music with special international military bands as guests (Notably in 2015 the Bundeswehr were invited to celebrate the Waterloo Bicentenary, and in 2014, the USMC Band and Royal Dutch Marines, for the Royal Marines' 350th Anniversary), held on Horse Guards' Parade, and rotates between the Army and the Royal Navy (Represented by the Massed Bands of H.M Royal Marines).
The Light Division (Which involves mostly The Rifles and Royal Gurkha Rifles) tend to put on a bloody good display, most notably when the Buglers advance at the double.
The difference between a rifle and a smoothbore is that the barrel on a rifle is grooved all the way down to improve accuracy and higher muzzle velocity.
You aim at the enemy with a rifle and you point your musket in the enemies direction..So rifles get a far higher percentage of hits per 100 shots but were far fewer in early years as it was more expensive and complex to produce.
There were two rifle regiments, each with multiple battalions. 95th Rifles and 60th Rifles. 60th Rifles were also known as the Royal Americans.
When the 95 Rifles were taken out of the list of numbered regiments the new 95th Regiment became the Derbyshire Regiment, which was not a rifles regiment. But the British Regimental System is something best avoided if you want to retain your sanity.
Doing family history and working out which regiment of foot was which , where , in the Mid 18th Century is fun, especially when the WO muster roles turn up misfiled at Kew, some under ADM files as the Regiments of Foot were on ships for Canadian/ American / Caribbean campaigns, and as attrition by death (more from illness than combat), or injury, either regiments would be needed to man the vessels, or the mariners found themselves on land duties. Most dont seem to have got paid either, I had one deducted three days pay for one days AWOL. (records held at Woolwich at one time ). I have some ancestors involved against the french including into napoleonic and tales of capturing Napoleon on each of his exiles, but I cannot see a name I recognise in the crew members of the ship/s involved on the inbound to England Journey, maybe it was on an outbound one , but the ship's log of the captain made interesting, if difficult to read the script), reading.
Match was the rope doused in chemicals that slowly burnt that was held by an S shaped arm called a serpent this rotates when the trigger is pulled and sets off the gun by setting the charge off in a pan that travels through a hole into the gun barrel to set off the main charge, if it didn't go off it's called a flash in the pan.
Next came a wheel lock which was clock work that spun against a piece of steel producing sparks that set the pan charge off and thus the guns main charge.
Flint was next used held and brought down to strike steel produce sparks etc, etc.
Smooth bore is as the name says smooth, rifled is grooves in the barrel that spin the bullet and is more accurate becouse of the gyroscopic effect on the bullet.
I'm guessing a rifle is thus a gun with a rifled barrel. PS. Going off half cocked is a reference to the flint springing forwards without you pulling the flint fully back and locked in place.
for something to do with the times of the Napoleonic wars would recommend to react to "Thomas Cochrane: Craziest Sea Captain in History". absolute mad lad and legend in south America!
Wasn't Hornblower based upon him?
There are several good channels with videos of flintlock and percussion firearms. Rob of BritishMuzzleloaders has in depth videos on the Baker rifle and it's use. Capandball has videos of both rifles and "smoozbore" muskets;)
The painting of the soldiers in square was "Quatre Bras"(1875) by Elizabeth Thompson, Lady Butler. She did several stunning paintings of events in British military history of the 19th century.
Uniforms dirty, rifles clean! - "Fix Swords" Celer et Audax! The spirit of the 95th & 60th lived on via The RGJ and now The Rifles. "Black & Green Finest Colours Ever Seen"
The Rifles and the Light Infantry based their uniforms on the Light Cavalry. Heavy infantry have a corps of drums but light infantry have a corps of bugles. So heavy infantry beat retreat but light infantry sound retreat. Today all the Rifle and light infantry have been combined into The Rifles. On youTube is both Beating Retreat and Sounding Retreat.
Over The Hills and far away was their song. With the Bakers were sword bayonets. Smooth bores are like shot guns. they wore green to blend in with the woods. I've read the books and have the 17 disc series.
I love your channel keep up the great stuff!!
Fun fact: how flintlock muskets and rifles worked still survives in phrases of the English language today. A "flash in the pan" refers to when the flint ignited the powder in the pan but it didn't set off the main charge and fire the musket ball as it should. "Keeping your powder dry" refers to how muskets were vulnerable to becoming useless in rain when the gunpowder got damp, so soldiers would have to keep their nerve and shield them from the rain until it stopped.
Don’t go off half cocked. As another.
The "95th riffles", became "the royal green jackets", which then became the "Yorkshire rifles", who are simply known today as "the rifles"
Oh thanks for clearing that up, thought that was the case like......Tough buggers them Royal Green Jackets too by the sounds of it!
In the British Army, the Rifles still fix bayonets to the command " Fix Swords"... the action taking place on the command swords.
The Baker rifle and the 95th Rifles employed their cartridge differently to those using the Tower pattern (Brown Bess) musket. The Rifles were equipped with a separate powder horn with which they charged the pan, using a better quality of powder. This improved the reliability of the flash in the pan and the certainty of a rifle actually discharging.
The standard line infantry regiments (the Redcoats) used a complete cartridge containing powder and ball from which they took a small quantity with which they charged the pan. The Rifles also had a small mallet which they used to tap home the wadded ball into the barrel. This more snug fit for the wadded ball enabled it to grip the rifling more effectively and reduced ‘windage’ (the clearance between the musket ball and the side of the barrel as it moved down the bore). This tighter fit improved accuracy & range for the Baker rifle.
They were called the scarlets because not all British soldiers wore red. Grenadiers and cavalry brigades wore blue.
Every Commonwealth regiment has an Honourary Colonel in Chief, which is a member of the Royal Family. This person acts as a patron (or matron) to the regiment, presenting the colours, officiating at ceremonials, and, in older times, sometimes privately subsidizing the regiment, since parliament is notoriously parsimonious. Occasionally, a particularly beloved Colonel in Chief will have their name added to the regiment's title. The Queen Mother was Colonel in Chief of my regiment (The Toronto Scottish) for so long that the regiment itself is now known as "Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother's Own" even though she has passed on. She was a grand old dragon too - we loved her to bits.
@Andrew Charles (very regal).
I looked on Google and found this about the Green Howards
The Green Howards
(Alexandra, Princess of Wales's Own Yorkshire Regiment; 19th Regiment of Foot)
Anniversaries Alma (20 September)
Commanders Last Colonel in Chief King Harald V of Norway
There was a Harald of Norway killed near York in 1066 with this being a Viking bit of the world, so I used to remember the visits to the regiment being on local TV.
@@alansmithee8831 My name is a coincidence. (And me dad's name was Edward and me mother was Margaret...)
@@andrewcharles459 You could not get more common than my name, but my grandparents had royal names too, as seems to have gone with the time they were from.
@@alansmithee8831 When Prince William was flying for the East Anglian Air Ambulance, he landed on the green in front of my house for a call down the road. As he wasn't needed for assisting with the patient, he waited by the helicopter and I had a chance to chat - as a private pilot myself he'd heard me admiring the approach into a cramped landing zone, so he invited me over and (as if it were necessary) introduced himself to me - as Wills, which he insisted on rather than the formally correct "Your Highness". When he asked my name and I told him, he said "oh, that's grandpapa's name" so I grinned and told him my middle name - William. We had quite a laugh and a great discussion on flying, and I asked him to call me Phil. So in a few years, I'll be able to say that I've been on first-name terms with the King if I live that long. I think he will do an excellent job, too.
@@phillee2814 My birthday and my grandma's was his parents wedding day and my grandad, her husband was William Henry, though not on the Smith side. I was luckily not called W H Smith though, even though I used to buy my Ladybird history books including one on the Royal Wedding and Airfix figures of Waterloo there.
Had a few beers with Sharpe and Hagman in the Wheel pub in Holbrook, Derbyshire, England. To the pub!
My 3 x great grandfather served in the 95th Rifles during the Napoleonic wars through all the Peninsula campaigns in Portugal, Spain, France and Belgium. Have a transcript of his diary written during this period and he describes his skirmishing with French Troops before the battle of Waterloo and during….a fascinating read.
There are many kinds of red scarlet but also crimson, vermillion for example. Most armies were equiped at the time with smooth bore muskets. the barrel was essentially a tube. For a practiced individual you could get off 3 shots in a miunute but much slower if not practiced because the loading system was complicated and loaded down the barrel from the front. Rifles like the Baker had spirals in the inside of the barrel that put a spin on the ball as it was propelled up the barrel which was much more accurate and had a longere range. The downside was because the ball fit in the barrel more tightly it was slower to load because you had to push the ball down a tighter barrel when loading. Smooth bore muskets were most common in armies until about 1850. A Frenchman inventerd the minnie ball that was signidicant smaller than the barrel but when fired expanded to fit the inside grooves in the barrel. This was the kind of gun most commonly used in the American civil war. The next step as a gun that could be loaded from the back of the barrel rather than shoving it all the way down the barrel, this was called breech loading gun.
This guy is not accurate about bayonets which essentiall turned the musket into a pike(spear). Battles were fought at rather close range. so if the other side were slow at reload like a rifle (say at50 yards) your opponent had 30 seconds to come at you with a bayonet, similarly if your enemy broke, chasing you would not be able to reload but you could use the bayonet. It was both a defensive and offensive weapon. The Baker used a longer(sword )bayonet because the rifle was considerably shorter than the muskets used by the regular army. The 60th rifles were called the Royal Americans because they had been recruited in the american Revolution in the US. Tall hats were actually common among soldiers in other times of history for the reason he gave the hats worn by the regualse were even higher and are related to the later top hats of today.
Matchlock guns preceded flintlocks. Both used the familiar hammer action that some guns still use, where, on pulling the trigger, a hammer falls to ignite the charge. However, with a matchlock, this hammer had a match (a slow-burning piece of rope) which descended to ignite the priming charge in a pan (which in turn set off the main charge in the gun itself). With a flintlock, the match was replaced by a flint, which hit a steel, that create a spark, that ignited the primer, etc.). Rifling is a feature of all guns these days that fire bullets. It is helical grooving in the barrel which makes the bullet spin and fly straighter and further. Muskets did not have rifling. Policemen's helmets were also designed to give the wearers more “bearing” as well as defence against miscreants bopping them on the head.
The designation of "Prince Consort's Own" is a bit misleading here. It doesn't come from the napoleonic era, but from about 50 years later, when Prince Albert, the husband of Queen Victoria, was given the colonalcy of the unit.
Albert, even if he was married to the queen, wasn't called "king"... he was just the queen's consort.
The name was given shortly after Albert's death.
I heard the term "prince consort" and immediately thought that it could not apply to the Napoleonic period.
There were 2 rifle regiments during the Napoleonic period, the 95th and the 60th Royal American Regiment. Both equipped with the Baker rifle and sword bayonet.
For weapons stuff: Ian McCallums Forgotten Weapons and InRange TV on YT. A smoothbore musket...is basically a piece of pipe that you ram lead balls and gunpowder into. Ignited through a pan with gunpowder with a spark from a flintstone hitting a mental piece (the Older version was...a Matchlock, just a glowing piece of string that lits the gunpowder in the pan). With muskets, you most, in Line Tactics just hammer the enemy with lead until he breaks. A Rifle was meant to hit important targets, Officers, Drummerboys/ Bugglars, the guy carrying the Colors.
Or for British Musketry, the britishmuzzleloaders channel as linked in my other comment here. Demonstrations, kit and musket drills (loading, firing, etc.) including the 1800 Baker of the 95th.
Rifle comes from the 'rifling' that is the pattern bored into the barrel spinning the ball to make it more accurate as apposed to smooth bore which is just a smooth barrel
I’m on the third book (chronological) in the Sharpe series by Bernard Cornwell and haven’t seen the series. So far he’s actually serving in India and is a redcoat, making his way through the ranks. It’s fantastic and I hope the series lives up to what I’ve read so far in terms of quality.
The first three books in India are great, but bear in mind if you keep reading them chronologically, the others between that and Sharpe's Rifles get a bit weak - I wish I'd read them in publication order instead.
The series runs more in publication order with the Indian episodes set after Waterloo as those books weren’t written till after the series ended.
@@BlameThande so I’ve been told. Don’t worry, I’ll stick with it through them
Mark Urban wrote..Rifles c.2003
Great book..from1809 - 1815.
Yes...worth a read.
I Love the books and the movies, I hope you enjoyed the shows that you've watched to date. The ignition systems went through a process of improvement over time with the start being a piece of treated cloth cord called a slow match, being held (sometimes with a special stick) in the hand. The next improvement was the Matchlock, where the same slow match was held in a mechanism on the gun. This also improved over time, from the first in the early 1400's to the last being the caplock in the 1820's. The innovation progression sped up with the various pre-modern firearm ignition systems being wheellock, snaplock, snaphance, doglock, miquelet lock, flintlock, and finally caplock.
Jane Austin talked about Scarlet Fever in her novels. It was a commentary on the sudden interest in the British army of the time when they could've been invaded by the French. .
Scarlet was the shade of red used to dye the British infantry jacket.
So a flint lock rifle is fired by black powder, this is placed into the rifle before wadding and the ball is added, this is rammed"home" then external to the rifle at the trigger there is the "lock" this has a small pan that is filled with black powder and a port from this pan extends into the barrel, the "lock" holds an actual flint and is held open when "cocked" in pressing the trigger the lock is released and moves towards the pan, it hits a striker plate causing a shower of sparks to fly into the pan, igniting the black powder, this extends via the port into the barrel igniting the main charge, if the main charge doesn't ignite this is called a flash in the pan (where the saying comes from)
The earlier version was a "match"lock this held a length of wick instead of the flint, this burned very slowly, ideally before pulling the trigger a blow would cause it to burn hotter and remove any ash, on pulling the trigger just like the flint lock the match would be carried into the pan.
These were both superceded by the percussion cap that was placed on an anvil with a port into the barrel, this was stuck by a hammer that was released by the trigger, similar to modern guns, except the cap is combined into the cartridge that hold the explosive charge and the ball (the bullet itself is still technically called a ball)
Muskets, used by the majority of troops during the period 1600-1830s, were smooth bore weapons (ie, just a basic tube that the musket ball travelled down), and started like as matchlock weapons (a match/fuse was used to ignite the powder in the pan to explode the musket ball down the tube), by the Napoleonic period were all flintlock (a flint striking a metal surface, just like a lighter).
Rifles are named so, because of the rifling of the the barrel (a spiral pattern inside the barrel) which causes the bullet to spin in flight. making it much more accurate and longer range (like when a quaterback throws a football, he spins the ball).
The Flintlock gave many phrases which are still commonly used.
This includes "Flash in the Pan", the "Pan" being the small bowl on the outside of the weapon which houses the priming charge which allows the main charge to be ignited. The phrase denoted the primer going off but not the main charge, a flash but no shot.
Another is "Going off half-cocked" this alludes to the loading of the firearm, the firer will half-cock the weapon to allow the pan to be open. If the firer manages to fire the weapon in this state the spark may not be enough to fully fire the weapon so you only get a partial discharge not the full charge.
Captain Patrick Ferguson, a young Scottish rifle pioneer, saw General Washington at the battle of Brandywine Creek, in 1777. He could have shot and killed him, but didn't, because it isn't "cricket" to shoot a man in the back. Another reason for tall hats is a head shot takes off the hat, not your head. This saved Abraham Lincoln while touring the defenses of Washington DC, when he got his tall hat shot off.
Another series over here is Hornblower set around the same time but based around the Royal Navy
A Flintlock is the method of firing the gun. It consists of a spring loaded hammer that has a flint attached that strikes on an iron plate producing a spark. The sparks ignite a small quantity of gunpowder that burns down a small hole to the main charge in the breech. This system was used on many guns of the time, from pistols up to the 32 pound cannon on Warships. The Baker rifle differed from the 'Brown Bess' musket that was used by the Line Infantry in having a rifled barrel, The musket is a smooth bore gun. Both the Brown Bess and the Baker were muzzle loader flintlocks, the Baker was a more expensive weapon that was issued to an elite force able to make use of it. The rifled barrel made it more accurate and gave a longer range which made it a good gun for sniping and harassing the enemy from cover. [The reason for the Green Jackets] Think of the Green Jackets as the Special Forces of the day, much like the SAS or SBS in the British Military or the Green Berets in the US.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flintlock
ruclips.net/video/WOeYPpOblAw/видео.html
Our 'prentice Tom may now refuse
To wipe his scoundrel Master's Shoes,
For now he's free to sing and play
Over the Hills and far away.
Over the Hills and O'er the Main,
To Flanders, Portugal and Spain,
The queen commands and we'll obey
Over the Hills and far away.
We all shall lead more happy lives
By getting rid of brats and wives
That scold and brawl both night and day -
Over the Hills and far away.
Over the Hills and O'er the Main,
To Flanders, Portugal and Spain,
The queen commands and we'll obey
Over the Hills and far away.
Courage, boys, 'tis one to ten,
But we return all gentlemen
While conquering colours we display,
Over the hills and far away.
Over the Hills and O'er the Main,
To Flanders, Portugal and Spain,
The queen commands and we'll obey
Over the Hills and far away.
From my memory an old English saying “ use your loaf” meaning use your brain. Came from the The Peninsular War where the rifleman would place his issue loaf of bread on his bayonet and place his hat on top then
Hold it up from a hidden location to draw out the position of an enemy sniper. Never saw that in Sharpe though
... usually it's said to come from rhyming slang: head = loaf of bread, then you drop the bit that Actually Rhymes to have a single word again: loaf. "Have a butchers" = look = butchers hook" and so on and so forth.
Yes I heard that too but I did do some research and it seems to
Have been from the wars. I would not want to argue the point because I have no clear evidence. What is certain the process of putting loaf on bayonet did happen
I have to agree given challenges with food, I can’t imagine them wasting a loaf of bread . I should have explained it maybe more of a myth.
A shako also could stop a saber. Perhaps not every time, but it was a good chance. (In Prussia they even did experiments on this.)
The problem with the smooth barrelled muskets is that as the weapon fires, the round bullet bounces along the inside of the barrel as it moves forward. The direction the ball heads once leaving the barrel will be heavily influenced by where it last bounced, e.g. If the ball touched the bottom of the barrel just as it leaves, then the shot is likely to go high as the ball is moving both forwards and upwards, reducing the accuracy and energy of the projectile. The rifle's grooves cause the ball to spin, reducing this effect, increasing the range, accuracy and power of the shot. A musket's effective range tended to be in the 100-200 meters, whilst the rifles were more like 400 meters. Down side to the rifle is the grooves made it slower to load, so you'd usually only get 2 shots a minute, compared to the musket's 3-4 shots. This is why you tended to see specist troops such as skirmishers using the rifles whilst the mass rank & file stuck to muskets. You don't need to be accurate when you have 100 muskets shooting at a block of 200 men.
There is a short video that explains the rifles history and why they used the bugle and not the drum as per normal line regiments, all rifle regiments had a silver bugle on their cap with the number or name i.e. DLI for Durham light infantry. the video is called 1 Rifles Bugle Breakfast
They built the stories on the rifle regiment because the line regiments, we're more controlled and directed. The rifles skirmished and were a little more independent, they could go off scouting and having adventures, which the bulk of the army wouldn't be doing. It's a more glamorous role!
There were originally two rifle regiments formed in the British army the 60th and the 95th both dressed in green coats the 60th had red facings and the 95 had black. Both were armed with the Baker rifle, much more accurate and with a longer effective range than the smooth bore musket then in general service with all armies but much slower to load. Both regiments are represented in the Sharpe series and my favourite character from the series Sharpes friend Captain Fredrickson is a member of the 60th. Rifle regiments were formed in response to lessons learned from fighting in the American forests hence the green coats. The red of the red coats varied enormously and could be a dull red or a brick reddish brown fading down to a dull pink during service, line officers wore scarlet a much brighter hue akin to that worn for ceremonial duties by the brigade of Foot Guards today. The origin of the red coat was from the uniforms worn by Cromwell’s New Model Army, one the first universally uniformed and fully professional armies ever.
muskets are smooth bore rifles have grooves cut in spiral one revolution or turn in the barrel to spin the bullet and give it stability in flight versus tossing a round ball out of a tube
The regular "redcoat" infantry of the british army had Brown Bess muzzle loaded, flintlock musket (which is a long gun with a smooth barrel. you load the musket ball and the gun power into the musket and jam it down with a rod, then the flint on the catch at the back slams down when you pull the trigger, causing a spark and igniting the gunpowder). these were rifled, which means they had spirals inside to make them more accurate, but worked in a similar way otherwise.
Infantry weapons today vary, but the standard infantry weapon is usually a rifle with a 20-30 round magazine and is usually semi-automatic or fully automatic.
You mention the M16, that is an Assault Rifle or Semi-Automatic Rifle, not a machine gun. an example of a machine gun would be an M240B or MG42
WW2 tanks used rifled barrel for increased stability, but those wear to fast. Today smooth bore is used in almost all tank guns, with sabot rounds (a heavy round that separates into small pieces after exiting the barrel, leaving a thin projectile, giving it a high kinetic energy and piercing capability).
Flintlock guns use a spring to strike a sharp flint on a piece of hardened carbon steel (frissen) producing sparks, it is ingeniously made so it opens a small compartment (pan) with powder outside the barrel as it strikes, that allows the sparks to ignite the powder in the pan causing a "flash", that flash then travels throug small hole in the barrel to main charge that ignites pushing the bullet out.
A failed ignition of the main charge is where expression "nothing but a flash in the pan" comes from btw.
M16 and M4 carbine are rifles. more or less all guns and pistols/revolvers firing single bullets have rifled barrels since 1850's and almost 100%, from 1900 on only shotguns and special stuff like harpoon guns... have unrifled barrels (some shotguns have rifling to make things more complicated)
The rifling forces the bullet to spin stabilising the flight allowing much more accuracy
For context on Rifle and Smooth-bore. Rifles like many have said house a spiral grove inside the barrel, where as a Smoth-bored Musket is just a tube. In modern day Rifles usually have 1/4 of the barrel rifled, but accuracy is factored by speed, weight or mass of a bullet. A Shotgun is pretty much a Smooth-bore in modern day since you have more projectile flung out the barrel.
Officers wore fine scarlet tunics made up individually by tailors. The rank and file wore red (hence red coats) which tended to fade to a brick red colour with time.
A rifle - Rifled Barrel, a barrel engineered with a helical groove within to spin the projectile making its trajectory straighter and more accurate than that of a projectile fired from a smoothbore barrel.
worth looking at the history of krups and its long range guns ( carriage etc , mounted) in the C19th and the difficulties they had with rifling and steel production, they sent spies to UK to check on british means of making iron for guns and steel for armour plate and they still didnt get the information they wanted. ! , Both swedish and british steel was superior to what the Germans could turn out, but the Germans had a volume advantage
The Rifle Brigade consisted of the 95th, the 60th "The King's American Rifles" and the 43rd/52nd Oxford and Bucks. Later they became the Royal Greenjackets with the battallions being numbered 1 - 3 in the reverse order I've listed them.
The rifles, like the smoothbores, were flintlock - meaning that the gunpower was ignited by sparks provided by a piece of flint striking a metal bar. The weapon is muzzle loaded by putting a measure of black powder down into the barrel and then a paper patch was rammed down to holds the power in place then the ball rammed in after the patch. On the side of the weapon is a large S shaped hammer which holds a piece of flint. Next to that is the striker plate and a small container for powder called the pan. Some more powder is applied to the pan, the hammer pulled back, the striker put in place. To fire, you pull the trigger, the hammer falls, the flint hits the striker causing sparks. The sparks ignite the power in the pan which burns into a small hole into the barrel and ignites the power in the barrel, sending the bullet out of the barrel. Rinse and repeat. This also brought phrases into common use such as going off half cocked - when the hammer falls from the half cock position and firing the gun. Flash in the pan - when the power in the pan ignites but does not ignite the power in the barrel. All flash, no bang.
By the time of the US Civil War, the flintlock had generally been replaced by the percussion cap. During the war, the percussion cap was replaced by metallic cartridges that had an inbuilt primer meaning that the soldier only had to load the cartridge into the gun and then fire it making loading and firing faster. This is the type of ammunition used today. Modern firearms (rifles, handguns, machineguns etc) all use rifled barrels.
And Sharpe is a most excellent series!
Hey SoGal, been following ya for a couple or more months now. my first comment tho. The tall helmets/hats were to misdirect the accuracy of the muskets volley shot so that the shooter from a longer distance would over shot their balls and miss their target. Rifles were a game changer and over took the muskets in terms of high accuracy and re-loading such that it was the technological difference in the Opium wars in China.
Red is how people call it but scarlett is official name but scarlett means red or is a shade of red
My Dad was a WW2 Veteran "Rifle Brigade" Originally 95th Rifles Regiment.
This Regt eventually became part of The Royal Green Jackets and formed their 3rd Bn (3RGJ)
Their sister Regt, The Kings Royal Rifle Corps also used the baker rifle and also became part of The Royal Green Jackets forming their 2nd Bn (2RGJ)
Both Bns still exist and form part of The Rifles, a light infantry Regt of the British Army.
I served as a Rifleman with 2RGJ from ‘76-‘86
As a side issue, The KRRC started is life as The Royal American Rifles and wearing green and buckskin, fought unconventionally against the french in N’America.
The Regimental moto is Celer et Audax (Swift and bold) and was given to the Regt at the battle of Quebec by Gen Wolfe. That moto is now the moto of The RIFLES.
Prior to the Napoleonic wars most infantrymen were armed with muskets which had a smooth bore inside the barrel, and fought in line or column. During that period a small number of elite units were supplied with rifles, that is, a weapon in which the barrel was rutted with groves that spiraled from breech to bayonet. They were far more accurate at hitting what they were aimed at, and riflemen became more mobile on the battlefield and involved in skirmish and ambush.
At the time, military companies and regiments were often known by the name of their commander, or patron (who put up the money to arm, clothe and feed them). In the case of the 95th, it was the "Prince Consort", that is the Prince of Wales who ruled with his father, so the 95th was "the Prince Consort's own".
You might want to try Sean Bean on Waterloo, it’s a two part series that was shown the history channel in the Uk
there was "matchlock" and "flintlock". Match was a chord infused with powder that smouldered when lit, when you pulled the trigger the match would move forward and touch the powder pan, lighting the powder and firing the gun. Flintlock was metal and created a spark to light the powder pan.
For extra special shots, the Rifle man had leather patches as a wadding, and even had a small mallet to tamp home the bullet. They were trained in skermishing, a for runner of Modern Infantry tactics.
Hello SoGal. Looking sharp Roger, like the bayonet, in that shako. Gone to your head?
5.50 the rifle was effective against the British in AWI.
The British learned from that as well as their German allies. The jäger (means hunter) were like the American frontier sharpshooters from that war. Some illustrations were from the same uniform books I had as a kid, which made me change from painting plastic to metal wargames figures.
A reenactment group like this used to be in Bridlington on bank holidays and I used to go and watch on the excuse of taking my girlfriend and dogs to the seaside.
I do hope you enjoy Sharpe as much as I did. It is on TV here in UK most Saturdays at present. It still have to pinch myself that the TV version had him from Keighley, like my family, as I keep saying on your comments. The 95th were always my favorite and some of the first metal figures I bought, probably because they always seemed more active than the pictures of scarlet jacketed men in square at Waterloo.
the lock was the mechanism by which the charge was ignited- the charge being the gunpowder that actually propelled the bullet. Matchlocks, involving a length of smouldering cord were ancient history even then. So where wheellocks, which generated sparks by means of a spinning disc. The standard for the time was a flintlock, where a piece of flint ( a particular kind of stone) was mounted in a spring loaded hammer which on release by means of the trigger would strike a spark that would ignite the powder in a small priming pan adjacent to a touchhole which lead to the the charge, thus igniting it and propelling the bullet.
Most firearms of the time were smoothbore, just tubes. rifles had grooves which imparted a spin on the bullet improving accuracy.
I have a possible difference with other commentators. The idea of using independent snipers in front of the main line derived from the French/Indian wars and the War of independence, where initially a scarcety of troops made it necessary and experience proved it useful. The French learned that lesson but failed to realise the advantage of the rifle.
The uniform was an early attempt at camouflage- a soldier in bright colours is an easier target than one in dull colours.
I guess you live in the States. Why don't you visit a gun club? I'm sure you could find an enthusiast could explain it better than me!
The stripes sown to the re-enactor's arm indicate that he is a 'Chosen Man' - the forerunner of Junior NCOs, or Corporals.
Love Sharpe, the green jackets of the 95th rifles. It's a very entertaining take on the history of the Napoleonic wars on the peninsula side which you haven't focused as much on. Enjoy
The regular smoothbore musket barrel was just a smooth metal rod or tube hence the name “smoothbore” but a rifle had rifling which are spiral grooves inside the barrel which make the musket ball spin while being fired and gives it more accuracy and range.
British regiments had a light company that was used for skirmishing, these were so successful that whole regiments were turned into light regiments, through amalgamation through the years the rifle regiments and the light regiments have been combined into The Rifles, they keep the uniforms, the traditions and the fast pace of marching of the rifles. There is also The Gurkah rifles.
I love the fact that you are trying to expand your knowledge of many different subjects but I would also like to know how you seem to know so little about anything, especially as you appear to be interested in so much.
A mystery I hope you will reveal ?
But keep going, a journey of a thousand miles starts with one step, I'm sure you know that one. 🤗
In 1816 following their distinguished service in the Napoleonic Wars The 95th Rifles became The Rifle Brigade and then in 1823 they were renamed The 95th (Derbyshire) Regiment of Foot. The Regiment was highly trained, educated and well disciplined thus enjoyed immense social prestige at this time. So much so that in 1861 on the death of its Colonel-in-Chief, Prince Albert, The Queen bestowed the title of ‘The Prince Consort's Own Rifle Brigade’ on the Regiment.
In 1948 the Regiment was merged with the King’s Royal Rifle Corps to form The Green Jackets Brigade further amalgamations followed with the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry in1958. In 1966 these three Regiments became the three battalions of the Royal Green Jackets and in 2007 were further merged with the Devonshire and Dorset Light Infantry, The Light Infantry and The Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire and Wiltshire Light Infantry to become The Rifles. And Being a good soldier is being able to fire 3 rounds per minute in any weather. BITE, POUR, SPIT, TAP, COCK, PRESENT, FIRE.
The term rifle refers to the creation of spiral grooves on the inside of a barrel which improves both effective range and accuracy, at the time of the creation of the 95th Regiment this was an expensive process so the majority of soldiers were equipped with muskets, which due to their smooth bores were notoriously inaccurate.
The only smooth bore weapons still in use are shotguns, everything else is technically a rifle (from the smallest handgun to the largest artillery gun), although like many words the original meaning has largely been lost, and to most people a rifle is a long barreled single shot weapon.
Flintlock refers to the method of lighting the gunpowder and replaced the earlier matchlock system, which brings another term, the meaning of which has changed, a match used to mean a length of smoldering rope, the use of which can be seen in some of the battle scenes in the Sharpe series, to fire cannons
The main difference between a smoothbore and a rifle is RANGE. Smoothbore muskets could be reloaded and fired up to 10 times per minute by well drilled troops, unlike rifles at the time (they could be reloaded about 6 times per minute). However, smoothbore muskets had an effective range of well below 50 yards and were inaccurate above about 30 yards. Rifles had ranges up to 250 yards and were used to pick off officers and cavalry leaders to disrupt columns and cavalry charges.
Quick update on rifles. The barrel of a traditional musket was a smooth tube. Easy to make, easy to load. Just pour the powder down, and drop a lead ball on top. Problem is they are only accurate up to 80 yards or so. Which is why the basic infantry stood in packed ranks and fired volleys. There was more chance of hitting the enemy.
Rifling is putting a spiral groove down the barrel. It makes the projectile spin which adds accuracy, up to to 800 yards. The problem is if the ball is to grip the groove it has to be a tight fit. So the ball had to be hammered down the barrel, especially if it had been fired a few times and was beginning to foul up with soot. It wasn't a suitable weapon for mass use by averagely trained troops, but was OK for specialists.
By the time of the American Civil war a Frenchman, Capt. Minnie had designed a lead bullet which had a hollow cup shaped Base, it would drop down the barrel easily, when it was fired the cup expanded and gripped the groove sufficiently to add the spin. No more hammering the bullet home.
A flintlock used a stone - the flint - to make a spark that ignited the powder and fired the gun. It was in common use for a couple of hundred years, but could be compromised by damp conditions. Again, by the time of the ACW a percussion cap firing system had been devised that was waterproof, and repeating rifles with combined bullet and charge cartridge's were also coming in.